


The Girl and the Giratina

by snowcloud8



Series: The Fallen Girl [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkward Romance, Awkwardness, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-06-30 15:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowcloud8/pseuds/snowcloud8
Summary: Diane Brown always wanted to be a Pokemon master, but living in the real world made that dream impossible until she ends up in Sinnoh region by chance, courtesy of Giratina, and starts traveling with a certain green-haired Elite Four member. But being a pokemon trainer is much different than playing one, and she soon realizes that this world might be more than just a game.





	1. The Real World: Reality is Overrated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A... quirky pokemon nerd tries to cope with real world problems and meets interesting solutions.

The world is riddled in mystery. Science has constantly sought out all its secrets, but mankind is still left in the dark about the many wonders of life. New discoveries are being made every day. Advancements on technology, new galaxies are discovered. Even time travel is slowly starting to become a possibility, but no one could begin to imagine the possibility a young girl's fantasy of living in a world that does not exist to be true... but the possibilities are endless.

* * *

Two pokemon trainers, who had fought countless times, were down to their final pokemon. The air was thick with anticipation, almost boiling to the point of becoming unbearable as a young woman with long, chestnut hair and dark brown eyes called out her final pokemon, a large blue and orange mud skipper like creature with two blue fins protruding out of his head. Her competitor, a girl with dirty blonde hair and green eyes, sent out their opponent, a reddish orange bipedal bird with long tan feathers and piercing blue eyes.

"Blaziken, use Sunny Day!" commanded the blonde, her pokemon crying out to the sky with his wrists ablaze in hot fire. The sun began to seer with intensity as hot sunbeams lit the surrounding area. Despite the heat, the brunette felt an anxious shiver of fear build towards her impending downfall.

"Quick, Swampert, rap this up with Hydro Pump!" the other girl ordered quickly, a feeling an unnerving sense of foreboding. A vortex of jet-stream water shot from Swampert's maw and blasted his opponent with enough force to pluck off the feathers of a chicken, but the attack had done less than half the damage she had wanted, thanks to Sunny Day being in effect, and with the Blaziken being faster than her Swampert, it was only a matter of seconds before his trainer executed the finishing move.

"Blaziken, use Solarbeam," the girl smirked as an icy feeling of panic spread over the brunette as her opponent quickly gathered light and fired a powerful green blast into her Swampert. Anticipating for the numbers to quickly fall to zero, she had thought it was the end until she saw that her pokemon was still barely hanging on, his HP miraculously stopped at 23 and deep in the red. Down but not out. She smiled to herself, grateful that her pokemon had amazing special defense against his one weakness, and gave the final order.

"Awwww yeah! Way to take the hit, Swampert! Use Earthquake!" she cheered as the ground began to shiver and crack like fractured broken glass before it quickly trapped and crushed the Blaziken, his HP dropping instantly until it trickled down to zero. Digital text began scrolling over both the Gameboy SPs, displaying the victory icon of Trainer Diana's win against Trainer Laura. Both girls sighed, finally able to put down their consoles, though it was for different reasons.

"Ah ha, YES! VICTORY!" Diana fist pumped the air, revelling in the proud feeling of beating her friend once again.

"That was BULL! No way he should have lived after that shot. It was four times the damage!" Laura cried out holding her silver Gameboy as Diana confidently posed in front of her gaudy pokemon posters plastered on her bedroom walls

"Swampert can just sense my love!" Laura gave her a deadpanned look.

"Now THAT is full of crap. What did you do to it? Use a Game-shark and supe him up with rare candies?"

"Don't even joke about that, man. You know me better than that. I don't want to cheat. It sucks all the fun out of it," Diana frowned. "I admit, your Sunny Day had me worried, especially when you used Solarbeam, but nothing can beat my Swampert's stats," she smirked before whooping and hollering as she did her victory march around the room, loudly singing "We Are the Champions" off-key.

"Okay, loser, stop being such a sore winner. I didn't even want to battle you anyway. You _begged_ me to," Laura growled teasingly at her friend.

"Well, that's because there's no one else to battle with," she shrugged in a-matter-of-fact way. "Plus, you know you love me."

"And you make me question that fact every day," Laura rolled her eyes sarcastically. "You do realize that this is just a game, right?"

"I'm crazy, not stupid."

"Could have fooled me. Forget the fact that you're a dorky, immature show-off, you're FIFTEEN. Now that you're in high school, you shouldn't even be playing these kind of games," she held up her Gameboy in emphasis before setting it back down on the bed.

"So? You're sixteen, and you play these games," Diana pointed out.

"Yeah, but only because you bugged the crap out of me to buy the game," sighed Laura as she sat up in a lotus position. "Pokemon is for little kids. I've seen _five year olds_ play this game."

"That's a bit harsh..." Diana mumbled, even if it was kind of true. Most of the people her age didn't play pokémon, but her rule of thumb was that no one was too old for pokemon, and she was going to stick to it.

"-besides, Digimon is much cooler than Pokémon," Laura finished curtly, leaving Diana in a wide-eyed stupor.

" _Blasphemy_! I would never DARE compare Pokemon to Digimon!" she exclaimed in mock offence at the audacity of the phrase just uttered, going into the deep history of her love of Pokemon franchise stretching across time all the way towards her inspiration to play the flute. She enjoyed the plot, the art, the music, even the intense fear of the fighting against the Elite Four, even when you had a million Revives. That feeling practically made her console controller shake in her hands. It was... exhilarating, and it made her feel good about herself. Unfortunately, she had talked way too long and bored her friend.

"Yeah, yeah, _Pokemon 2000,_ flute. I still think it's a fluke. Look, can we just disconnect already?" Laura sighed irritably.

"Fine..." Diana replied dejectedly as she exited her avatar from the battle room, saved, and shut down her Gameboy. She had just won her fifth wireless battle, but after the high wore off, she was left with an empty feeling as her thoughts returned to how little time she had left. Rolling off the bed and stretching her arms out, Diana tried to shake off any notion of sadness. "Been playing for a while... what time is it?"

"Uhhhh..." Laura replied, looking down at her wrist watch. "It's five o'clock. Why?"

 _Five o'clock!? Pokemon: Galactic Battles is on!_ Ignoring her friend, Diana jumped up with catlike agility and dashed out of her bedroom towards the living room. After fumbling for the remote, she quickly clicked on the TV onto Cartoon Network, displaying the screen of Ash and company relaying their past adventure from last episode.

The network had gone pretty far downhill on cartoons recently, and because of the unfortunate time slots they had for Pokemon, one of the few good shows, she had missed most of their episodes, but through some stroke of luck, she had manged to watch all the important gym battles up until now. Today, Ash was going to finally challenge Candace as the beginning clip of the episode transitioned into the opening song, "Battle Cry." Diana prepared to sing into her invisible microphone as the first couple of synthesized notes played.

 _"Sometimes it's hard to know (da-da),_  
Which way you're supposed to goooOOOO,  
But deep inside, you know you're strong,  
If you follow your heart, you can't be wrong..."

"YOU ARE SUCH A DORK!" yelled Laura from the other room. Diana smiled and took that as a compliment as she sang louder and more confidently as the song began to end.

 _"...And if we come, together as one,_  
Complete the quests that we've begun,  
We will win the battle, Galactic Battles POKEMON!"

She squealed and rolled on the couch, hugging her legs to her chest as the episode started. God, she loved that song _so much_! It always seemed to fill her with a rush of nostalgia and adrenaline. Guess that's why the song was called "Battle Cry."

"You have to be the most tone deaf flautist I've ever known," Laura declared but reluctantly joined her on the couch anyway. In her excitement, Diana had rudely left Laura in the other room with an uncomfortable feeling of abandonment, but she was too wrapped up in her TV show to notice. But she would soon forgive her friend of this. She was, after all, Diana's best friend. She knew her friend hadn't meant to leave her behind because she knew, better than anyone else, how much this franchise meant to her.

As the gym battle began on TV, Dawn spouted out her usual 'No need to worries,' which gave Diana an intense need to jump off something tall. She found the character to be so obnoxious and a poor replacement for the female protagonist role, that the only good aspect of her was her diverse team of pokemon. Even Laura joined in mocking her by doing annoying imitations of her voice. They didn't have anything against Dawn personally. The coordinator just needed better writers.

After the episode ended, Laura was alerted by her phone to leave for a babysitting job and the fun was abruptly put to an end. The two girls looked at each other in the doorway, unsure of what to say to the other.

"You've got Petrie, right?" Diana asked gesturing to Laura's flute. Her stand partner nodded. "We should jam together again sometime."

"Yeah... I feel like I should give you my Ruby game, since... you know," Laura said, holding out her Gameboy cartridge before Diana pushed it back.

"No... You trained them all, and I wouldn't feel right taking them from you," Diana shook her head before displaying a small, confident grin. "Besides, you need to get stronger so that we can have another rematch, that is, if you think you'll be able to beat me."

"Dream on," Laura rolled her eyes. They stood there for a moment before they quickly pulled each other in a tight hug. "See you later..."

"So glad you didn't say goodbye," Diana chuckled mirthlessly.

"Never."

"...See you later, then," Diana smiled as she let her friend go to her red Sedan. She didn't move from the doorway until Laura pulled out of the driveway. As the feeling of loneliness began to creep in, Diana went back into her room and tore open her new Pokemon Platinum game, feeling the inspiration and excitement of a brand new game to play pull her in.

She hadn't bought Diamond or Pearl because she had no money to buy the system for it. But finally, during her sleepover with Laura, she was surprised with a Nintendo DS lite and a Pokemon Platinum game to go with it. Diana had wanted to play it ever since she had received the game earlier that day, but she didn't want to ignore Laura the whole time, although it was literally killing her inside not to rip open the box like lion tearing open its prey.

Right as she was about to pick her starter, she was interrupted by her mom yelling to come down to dinner. Although Diana was frustrated at stopping so early in the game, the rumble in her stomach called her to the meaty smell of spaghetti and meatballs downstairs. Not even bothering to save the game, she huffed and turned off the DS and sat down to one of her favorite dishes.

 _YUM! I love Mom's home cooking!_ she thought, inhaling the intoxicating smell of brown sugar meat sauce and fresh, steamy pasta.

"Diane? You have everything packed for the trip tomorrow, right?" her mother said using her daughter's proper name, diluting her daughter's mood by bringing up a sore subject. It felt too formal, too cold, and tasted weird in her mouth. It made her sound like she was supposed to be regal and fair, things that Diana felt did not describe her at all.

"Yes," Diana grunted as she quickly began twirling balls of spaghetti anxiously on her fork. The food suddenly began to turn bitter in her mouth and became hard to swallow, but she kept her focus on her plate.

"You can't be late. Your audition at Berklee is on Monday, and the Greyhound won't wait on you if you slack off on getting up for it." Diana fought back the word vomit as the food went from bitter to acidic as she violently began to take it out on her spaghetti and shovel it into her mouth, turning the loving home-cooked meal into a bloody battlefield.

"That means I don't want you to be playing that game all hours of the night," her mother continued. "I only bought you that junk because I thought you would need something to do on the bus ride over to Massachusetts. Your birthday isn't for another five months, so I would be grateful that you're getting anything at all right now. And I don't want to hear that you've been playing it instead of practicing or doing your homework, you hear me? You're lucky that school let you take a day off to audition without affecting your perfect attendance record."

"Yes, _mother_ ," she sighed irritably, staring hard at her food.

"What's with the tone? Don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady." Finally, Diana had had enough. Her utensils clattered onto the plate as waves of hostility flooded over her.

"Well, how am I supposed to feel, mom? Tell me! How is the problem child supposed to feel? You're the psychiatrist now. Am I supposed to be grateful that you let Laura come over, even though you hate her mom, and gave me a video game to buy me off just so you can quietly ship me away 1400 miles away from home like I'm a freaking FedEx package? Am I supposed to feel proud that you're profiting from Dad's disappearance?"

"I already told you, I just want to be ready in case the military decides we don't need the support anymore. We won't have these benefits forever, and don't have that attitude with me, young lady!" Her mother shouted, but Diana kept going as she felt the anger rise and bubble over, getting into one final row with her mother before she left for the next three years.

"And that was just the perfect excuse to go back to school, wasn't it? Until he's reported dead, you can use his benefits all you like. It was perfect timing, because having me kept you from getting your dream job, right? That's me! Problem child and destroyer of dreams! Well, I'm sorry, but I didn't make the choice of getting pregnant in high school!" At that point, she had known she had gone too far, because the furious look in her mother's eyes could melt solid steel.

"You shut your mouth, _right now_ ," her mother hissed lowly, her venom like ice in Diana's veins. "You say one more word, and I will take away your game, and you can go on that bus with nothing, you hear me?" Diana could do nothing but mutely nod, her mother's words as cold and intimidating as a hard slap to the face.

"You don't understand anything about what your father and I have had to sacrifice to get to where we are now. I am trying to make a better life for us, so you're going to go to Massachusetts tomorrow and you're going to nail that audition, and if I hear you bombed it because you didn't want to go to a prestigious music school because it was far away, then don't bother coming home."

After her furious declaration, her mother had stood up from her chair and put her dish in the sink before returning to her study. Dinner was over.

* * *

It didn't used to always be like this. Unlike most parents, her dad was actually pretty cool. By day, he was a military officer, but by night, he was a pro gamer. He could master any video-game you gave him, even level three of Battle Toads. He would play video-games with Diana all the time, even though her mom didn't like how little her daughter would spend outside. Then, one day, that all changed. Her mother became more irritable and spent more time at work, leaving Diana with nothing but her video-games, empty reminders of what was long past. Virtual tombstones.

She wasn't a bad kid. She didn't do things like go to crazy parties, drink beer, or get high, but she did get into a lot of fights, being short tempered at the worst of times. She was still angry. Angry at her mother, at herself, at the whole world for the unfairness of her situation.

As she finished her dinner and put her dish in the sink, Diana wanted to push all of her feelings away. Drown her sorrows into something mind-numbing. She thought of grabbing her DS, but it didn't seem enough. She already had two broken controllers from venting her frustration into Super Smash Brothers, and she didn't want to add her new game to the collection. She needed to channel her anger into something else, something more physical and less fragile. Her therapist Debbie had been trying new exercises in channeling her anger. Breathing in through the mouth and out through the nose, squeezing a squishy ball, even listening to relaxing music. Breathing was okay, but the squishy ball just alerted other people that she was getting angry, and she couldn't listen to music all the time.

Her counselor thought about getting her to tryout for competitive sports, but she wasn't very athletic, her body weight being a puny ninety five pounds at most, so she found marching band. She discovered that playing the flute taught her patience and self-discipline. It took a lot of effort and concentration to play the flute, not to mention it was the reason she had gotten the scholarship; ten years of practice had finally paid off. Granted, the army was already more than willing to cover all of her education costs, but with her track record of school incidents and her father's five year MIA slowly dwindling their hopes to KIA, she was essentially walking on a tight rope. No one wanted to invest in a hopeless cause.

Her grades were average at best, that is, if she ever did the homework, but her music she practiced almost as diligently as she played her video games. Right now, she felt the urge to play the flute was stronger than her new video game. After moving around a large amount of suitcases in a corner of her room, Diana lifted a small black case out from under a sleeping bag and snuck out the backdoor. Dusk was quickly setting in, and she wanted to vent with her music without her mother complaining about the noise. Small crumpled bits of notes and sheet music stuck out of her case as she assembled her flute.

At sunset, the pond behind her house sparkled like a million diamonds on its platinum waters as the skies above hewed in a pearl-like pink. Sitting in the cool grass, the smell of freshly mowed lawns filled the air as she lifted the flute to her lips and began to he tune and play a series of scales. After she finished her warm up exercises, she regressed into playing "Lugia's Song," always enjoying starting off her serious music with a light-hearted cover. Pokemon 2000 was what had gotten Diana into music all those years ago. It was, ironically, also indirectly the reason she was moving away. This thought made her unconsciously transcend to her audition piece, Adagio in G Minor by Albinoni, the gloomy notes echoing around the lakefront. Originally, she was going to perform her Vocalise, but she herself wasn't satisfied with the piece.

As practice went on, dusk turned to twilight as the sun disappeared behind the thicket of trees as thoughts of her expressions translated into her Vocalise, finally receiving the sound she longed for. Her long hours of practicing Rachmaninov had finally paid off as she hit the notes perfectly, hearing them dance around the lake bank's acoustics, the cattails almost swaying and dancing to the lovely mournful piece. She could almost hear the operatic voice that usually accompanied the opus, the song in and of itself dedicated to an opera singer. If only it were that easy when it came to talking to people, like her mother. As she came to the final bar of music, Diana finished playing the song with one long _decrescendo_ note before disassembling her flute and placing it back inside its case.

While the music had calmed her down, it did not quell her aversion to the dark, the evening shadows causing an anxious need to rush home before she heard a jump in the water. It was normal for the fish to be feeding at this time of day, but it still scared the living daylights out of her. Her anxiety and overall jittery-ness made a cold shiver go down her spine, feeling the uneasy paranoia of someone was watching her.

"Come on, girl, don't be such a chicken. You're afraid of nothing but your own shadow," she joked aloud, trying to shake it off. She warily stared down at the reflecting waters, thinking how dark and deep the waters looked, and how pollution could ruin such clarity of water. You couldn't see anything ... except, she did see something, although she thought she had imagined it. Down in the reflection, she saw two red glows resembling something like eyes. At first, she thought they were airplane pilot lights reflected in the sky overhead, but there wasn't a jet to be found.

**_Help me..._ **

She jumped at the faint voice, a foreign sound within her own mind. She must be really getting paranoid. She wasn't hearing voices, and she didn't see anything in the water... except she did. The eyes were gone and instead there was a dark shadow, swirling around in the water like a centipede, grow closer and larger with size.

_**LET...ME...OUT!** _

Without warning, a huge geyser shot up out of the lake like a waterspout, the tornado opening a hole in the lake.

"HOLY SHIT!" Diana exclaimed, reeling back in fear from the jump scare and landing hard on her butt. What the hell was going on?! The thought of a portal to hell came to mind as a ghostly black tentacle shot out and clawed at the ground around her before it wrapped around her waist and pulled her towards the water as she screamed bloody murder. The last thing she remembered was her screams being silenced by a deafening roar. Then the world went black.


	2. The World of Pokemon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The quest for shiny pokemon gives an elite trainer successful results and an unexpected bonus prize.

"Drapion, use X-Scissors, and Vespiquen, use Slash!" a young trainer called out towards his bug pokemon as they attacked a wild Graveler and Staravia, knocking both of them unconscious. The boy looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old and had light green hair and emerald eyes with an odd, cowlick antennae sticking up on the top of his head. He wore a black tank top with two orange hexagons meeting in the middle of his shirt, along with orange pants and sneakers with white undersides. Proud of all the take downs his pokémon had done that afternoon, he decided to give them a break.

"Great job, you two! You deserve a good rest." Both of them flashed into their pokeballs before the boy strolled around in the grass. Normally, he would've had just trained on one of the routes near Victory Road because it was closer to the League, but he liked the privacy of the spring he visited. It was surrounded by rocky terrain and crumbling landscape, keeping most humans out and strong pokemon in. He first discovered the place after he accidentally slid into a broken fence after being chased by some persistent fans. After clearing away some of the underbrush and debris, he found an abandoned dirt road that led to the mountain spring. The spring had very clear, almost translucent water. It was perfect for attracting bug pokemon, his favorite type of pokemon, but it was very difficult to get to on foot. Gratefully, that just made the pokémon here even tougher, making it an ideal training spot for one of the Elite Four, especially for one who was trying to get off the radar of his many crazed fans.

It wasn't that he didn't love his fans. It was just he could hardly go anywhere without _someone_ recognizing him as Aaron of the Elite Four. It was fun at first, but now it was nearly impossible to go anywhere without being badgered. The only people he could rely on, outside of his family, were in the Elite Four, some of the Gym leaders, and the champion, but that was a very small crowd of people, and he only tolerated a few of them. Not the most open group of friends. He was starting to suspect the fangirl attacks had something to do with his iconic green hair and outfit. Maybe he needed a new look?

Before he could think about any extreme makeovers, a bush rustled, revealing something shiny and orange skittering out of the large clump of grass. _Lucky day! A shiny Kricketot!_ Aaron thought as he chased the rare pokémon through the tall weaves of grass. He had never seen a different colored pokémon before, aside from the red Gyarados the news had shown on television, but he had heard about their rarity, and he wasn't going to let an ideal opportunity like this slip away from him.

"Man, that thing is fast," he huffed before he smirked at hearing a familiar xylophone clink ahead. "But it even it can't keep up with its own tiny feet. Go pokeball!"

He wildly threw a red and white orb retrieved from his back pocket ahead through the grass, hearing the chirp of the Kricketot as the device bobbed against it to capture it. His pokemon were way too strong to just simply battle a pokemon as weak as Kricketot, so he had to pray for a one-shot capture. One... two... three... click! The pokeball finished wiggly with a satisfied click as Aaron grinned broadly at the latest addition to his team.

"Sweet! A new bug pokemon! Now, where did that pokeball g-?" he smiled to himself, picking up his new teammate before he noticed a crumpled figure lying face-down in the grass near where the pokeball had landed. Momentarily forgetting about the shiny pokémon, he pocketed his Kricketot and ran towards the collapsed figure, kneeling down onto his knees in the grass. He didn't know anyone else had been up here, and judging by how the figure was contorted, it wasn't in the most ideal napping position. It appeared to be a girl that seemed to be about fifteen with long, chocolate-brown hair that was strewn about all around her like twine. "Oh my god! Hey, miss? Are you alright?"

She didn't respond. Had she been attacked? He didn't see any marks or damage, but that didn't mean they weren't there. There could have been internal damage. While checking for injury, he didn't see any pokeballs on her either. Who would come out to a spring like this without any pokemon? It was dangerous to venture into the wild without protection. That was rule one of trainer school! It was a wonder if she wasn't harmed out here in the wilderness. Worried about her condition, he leaned down to check her vitals. He knew some of the basics of first aid, but he wasn't really sure what to do in this situation. When someone is unconscious, you aren't supposed to move the body, and the nearest pokemon center was miles from here.

Now that he got a better look at her, he noticed that she wore a black tank top with the words 'Make games, not guns' on it with denim blue jeans and white sneakers. She also had a silver ball-chain necklace with two silver dog tags clinking at the end of it. One of them had a large star on it, the other read:

_Brown_  
_Damien J._  
_017-36-5249_  
_AB Positive_  
_N/A_

Was that her name? He didn't think it was a girl's name. Gently lifting her right hand, Aaron pressed two of his fingers over her wrist to check her pulse. It was slow and steady, but still going. However, he couldn't tell if she was breathing. Leaning down, he turned his head so that he could try and feel her breathe on his cheek.

"Oh thank god, you're alive," he sighed, relieved that he felt a small breathe before she began to stir. He turned his head back towards her and saw two dark brown eyes staring back at him, not realizing how close he was before her scream rang through his ears.

"AHHHH!" the girl cried out, flailing around to push him away trying to put at least three yards between them. _Didn't this guy know ANYTHING about personal space?_ she thought with a hand on her chest, trying to catch her breath.

"Ahh jeez! Man, that hurt," Aaron winced, clutching his right ear. This girl had a voice on her, that was for sure.

"Who are you? What's going on? What do you want with me!?" she demanded fearfully.

"Miss, please calm down and try not to move," he eased, trying to steady her frantic behavior. "I'm sorry if I scared you, but I found you lying unconscious nearby, and I wanted to make sure you were okay, so try to make no sudden movements until I can see that you're okay."

"I'm _fine_ , I just fainted, but you don't have to be _two inches_ away from my face to do that! What the hell were you trying to pull anyways?" she spat, looking suspiciously at him, like he had done something immoral.

"I was checking to see if you were breathing," he explained with a small frown. "That's what you're supposed to do in first aid."

"Well, I'm breathing, so leave me alone," she growled, pushing his hand off of her arm as she tried to hide the flush on her cheeks. She didn't like it when people messed around with her when she was vulnerable, especially guys. It was weird, and it made her feel all jittery and uncomfortable. The fact that she was unconscious just made it weirder. He looked like he was around her age and seemed pretty average except for the fact that he had green hair.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but I gotta to ask: what is up with your hair? Did you just come from an anime convention or did a bunch of your buddies dare you to dye it?" she asked staring at his odd cowlick. Aaron was almost stunned by this comment, trying to recover from the out-of-nowhere, backhanded comment.

"...You were lying face-down, unconscious, in the middle of nowhere, and the first thing you do is insult my hair color?" he stated incredulously. She blinked at him, taking in just how rude the comment sounded.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that, I just-!" she stammered, worried she had offended him before he interrupted her frantic worry with a small laugh.

"Naw, it's okay," Aaron smiled, waving off her odd comment before placing his hand sheepishly on the back of his neck. "Actually, this is my natural hair color."

"Odd... I've never heard of anyone having natural green hair," she smirked. She had heard of people dying their hair at an early age, but to accept something so bizarre as one's hair color was a bit unusual.

"Oh yeah. A ton of people back home have green colored hair," he affirmed.

"Oh? And where is that?" I asked curiously, humoring him to hear his answer.

"Eterna City," he replied. Eterna City? It sounded so familiar. Where had she heard that name before? He continued on talking before she could think too hard about it. "So, where did you come from? Or do most girls your age greet people by insulting their hair color?" he joked.

"Like you have to ask. I'm from Northern Dunes," she replied as-a-matter-of-factly.

"The Northern Dunes? Is that in the Kanto region?" he asked as she gave him a look as if he had lobsters crawling out of his ears. _Kanto region? That was from a pokémon game, but... why would he say it like it was an actual place?_

"No, it's where we are."

"No, we're not. This is Send Off Springs," Aaron assured.

"Send Off Springs? Wait... So I'm not... and this is ... so that thing _was_ real," her eyes widened. "Oh my god, we need to get outta here! That thing's going to get me again!"

"Wait wait wait, hold on. Slow down. Get you? What thing?" he asked in alarm, grabbing her shoulders to steady her.

"A weird, big, monster thing grabbed me with one of its black tentacles and pulled me into the lake, and the next thing I know, I pass out and wake up with you two inches away from my face," she pantomimed as she explained what happened.

"That's weird," Aaron said thoughtfully to himself. "I didn't see any monster or anything. Could you describe it?"

"I don't know. I didn't see it very clearly. It was some sort of creature with red eyes. It looked kind of like a giant, armored wyrm."

"...A worm?" he deadpanned.

"No, not worm. _Wyrm,_ " she rolled her eyes. "W-Y-R-M. You know, like a dragon with wings and no legs?"

"I don't think I've ever heard of a dragon type with wings and no legs before..." his brow furrowed before shrugging. "I don't know. I'm not a dragon type expert."

_Dragon type expert?_

"Soooo, if I'm not in Northern Dunes, then where am I?" she finally drew out.

"Send Off Springs, I just told you that," he replied. She mentally face palmed herself before trying to answer again.

"I know _that_ , but what area is Send Off Springs in?" she said a little more slowly.

"Ohhhh. You're in Sinnoh," he chirped as she gaped at him. Was this guy serious? Kanto, dragon types, Sinnoh? If this was a joke, it wasn't very funny. She had to deal with a lot of guys picking on her at school because of her love of pokemon. They would even mispronounce the names of things just to piss her off. But this was just... messed up.

"Okay, if I'm in 'Sinnoh,' prove it to me," she smirked, crossing her arms firmly in doubt. Aaron scratched his head a little before answering.

"Well, about a couple miles north of here is Veilstone City. If you need to call somebody there, I guess my Yanmega can take you wherever you need to go," he said as he began feeling around in his orange pant pockets. It wasn't until he pulled out a familiar red and white orb that her smug glare quickly fell off her face. As he tossed the ball into the air, a large, six foot, green and red dragonfly appearing out of the white and red flash. Its large, forest green scales hovered above the ground, beating its red tipped wings in a loud, continuous rhythm as the girl gawked in disbelief.

_Oh...my...god._

"Yanmega over here is the fastest flyer that I've got, so he can pretty much take you anywhere you want to g-" he began before he saw the girl drop to her knees. She felt like she was going to faint.

"Whoa! Hey, are you okay? Do I need to take you to a pokemon center or did Yanmega freak you out? I heard some girls don't like Bug types, but he's not _that_ scary!" the boy began to ramble in concern, her eyes widening as she caught the words "Bug types" and "pokémon center," which only seemed to scare him more.

"...You sure I'm in Sinnoh?" she finally managed to breathe out in almost a whisper, stopping the boy's loud ramblings.

"Umm... yeah," he said giving her a panicked look as she covered her eyes with her hand as reality finally set in. "Oh crap! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry. _Please_ don't cry," he worried, starting to ramble again before he saw her start to smile.

"I'm not crying. I'm just... really happy," she beamed before staring off at the distance. "I can't believe I'm here. I'm _finally_ here." Aaron gave her a startled look as she began to grin like an idiot. "I've always wanted to come here, and now I'm actually here! EEEEEE!"

"Owww! A warning next time, please?" he winced, holding his ears again.

"Sorry. I'm just... _really_ excited to be here," she grinned, speaking a little more calmly.

"Yeah, I got that."

It was a spectacular feeling. She was in the Pokémon world. She was in the freakin' pokémon world! She felt so free and elated, it was like this huge burden that had finally been lifted. "So, now that you know you're in the Sinnoh region, are you still up for that ride? Or are you freaked out by bug types?" he asked unsurely, Yanmega giving the girl a curious glance.

"Are you serious? I would love it! Plus, don't worry, I'm not afraid of bugs. Actually, I think Yanmega are pretty cool. Can I pet him?" she asked.

"Sure. Go ahead," he replied happily as she walked over to the giant green dragonfly, stroking its head.

"Oh my gosh!" she squeaked, causing Aaron and Yanmega to tense up. "His scales are so weirdly smooth." Both began relax as she continued to pet him, relieved they weren't going to relive through another girl becoming squeamish and flip out on them. This girl certainly had an... interesting personality. He honestly wasn't sure what she would do next.

"This is so cool," she smiled as she scratched his head.

"Yan, yan," said Yanmega, clearly enjoying the attention as he started to rub his head against her, his vibrating wings almost imitating that of a purring cat.

"Ha ha, looks like he likes you. Usually most girls I meet tend to freak out anytime I send out Yanmega or any of my bug type pokemon," his trainer said, clearly relieved that the girl wasn't afraid of his six foot dragonfly.

"For real? Why would anyone be afraid of this big sweetheart?" she gaped before giving Yanmega a hug around the neck. "This is the first time I've ever seen a Yanmega up close." _Or any pokemon for that matter, but who cares? I'M PETTING A FREAKIN YANMEGA!_ she thought happily.

"Well, you're about to ride one pretty soon," Aaron grinned.

"Sweet! The offer still stands, right?"

"Only if you still want a ride," he shrugged as the girl nodded quickly.

"Definitely," she replied before her brow furrowed at the bug pokemon. "But... will there be enough room for both of us?"

"Don't worry. He's a bit bigger than most Yanmega, so he should be able to fly us, as long as it's not too far."

"Wow, he must be strong then," she remarked, looking back at the large dragonfly.

"The strongest," Aaron grinned proudly. "So, where to?"

"Umm..." she hummed, contemplating on what she wanted to go. "Do you know where Sandgem town is? I need to see Professor Rowan."

"Yeah, I know where that is. What's your business with the professor?"

"I want to register for the pokemon league and receive a starter pokemon from him."

"The pokemon league? Now that's a tall order. You don't look like you're ten years old," Aaron joked.

"My mother made me start late. She doesn't really... approve of what I'm doing," she frowned before changing the subject. "Anyways, have you been to the Pokemon League?"

"I have, and I gotta tell you, they are tough. I wouldn't be surprised if you lost to the first gym."

"Hey, I may have started late, but I'm far from inexperienced. I've been through quite a few... battle simulations," she finished, not really wanting to reveal everything to a complete stranger. "You know, it only now occurred to me that I asked you for a ride, and I don't even know your name."

"You don't know my name?" Aaron blinked, dumbfounded.

"No. Should I?" she tilted her head as the boy pondered over this odd revelation.

"No... I guess not," he drew out slowly before relaxing a bit. "Name's Aaron."

"Hi Aaron, I'm Diane Brown, but please, call me Diana. Diane is what my mother calls me," she smiled, extending her hand towards his before he shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Diana," Aaron grinned before they broke the handshake and crawled onto Yanmega's back with Aaron leading in the front. "Alright then. Yanmega, next stop Sandgem Town!" he commanded as Yanmega began to beat its wings, lifting them off of the ground.

"Omigod!" Diana screamed, causing Aaron to look over in concern.

"First time flyer?" he asked.

"Uh yeah, you could say that..." she spoke nervously.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just hang on tight! Yanmega likes to go fast," Aaron grinned as Diana's stomach began to drop as Yanmega began to hover and pick up speed. She shrieked, squeezing her eyes shut and clinging tightly to Aaron in fear of falling off. Aaron stiffened at the sudden contact as she whimpered as Yanmega's elevation seemed to rise.

"Hey, easy. I was just kidding! I'll slow him down," he eased trying to comfort the terrified teen.

"Not funny..." she mumbled, pouting at the fact he had teased her. As the wind began to die down, she began to relax a little but still refused to open her eyes.

"If you're too nervous, here! You sit in front." He undid her arms around him and scooted behind her, Diana slightly panicking that he switched positions on Yanmega when they were probably a couple thousand feet in the air. "Now, hold on here and open your eyes."

She felt him place her hands on Yanmega's head. She didn't want to comply, but she didn't want to fly blind either, now that she had no shield protecting her.

"Don't worry. I won't let you fall," he eased gently before he firmly wrapped his arms around her waist for balance. "I'll be your seatbelt."

She felt a small, sheepish blush spread on her cheeks. That line was so cheesy, it belonged in a chick flick or some bad fanfiction. But he didn't seem to mean anything by it, and it did distract her enough to do as he instructed. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes to a spectacular sight.

"Wow..." she murmured, awestruck by the view. The houses seemed miniaturized and the fields looked like patches on one big quilt as the clouds flowed beneath them in the afternoon sky like milk and honey as a flock of Starly and Staravia flew.

"Helloooooo down there!" she called out as Aaron laughed.

"Now that you've seen the view, let's continue on," he grinned as Yanmega's wings began to beat louder. "Maybe when we land in Sandgem Town, we could ask the professor about your mysterious wyrm."

"What?" she asked, Yanmega's wings being a bit too loud for her to hear.

"I SAID, 'WE SHOULD PROBABLY ASK THE PROFESSOR ABOUT THE WYRM YOU ENCOUNTERED!" he shouted a little louder.

"Don't bother. Whatever it was, it brought me here to the Pokemon world, and now, I'm never going back home!" she replied.

"WHAT?" he yelled, now not being able to hear her.

"I SAID 'OKAY!'" she lied as they continued on towards Sandgem Town into the afternoon sun. _I probably shouldn't tell him I'm from another world. He'll probably think I'm coo-coo for Coco Cocoa Puffs!_ she thought, humorously imagining herself being hauled off in a straight jacket by a bunch of men with their butterfly nets.

 


	3. The Journey of a Thousand Miles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana's wish to become a real-life pokemon trainer has finally come true. If only the real world implications of pokemon had come with a manual...

It was nearly sunset when they arrived in Sandgem Town. After flying for so many miles, Diana didn't realize how cold the Sinnoh region was until she felt herself shiver during most of the flight. It made her long for her warm, green hoodie back home. It was hard, starting out at the beginning with nothing. At least the protagonist in the games had a house and a family to go back to, not to mention 3000 _poke_. Oh well, no matter. As soon as she got her starter pokemon from the professor, she could start battling to earn money and save up for a nice leather jacket.

Diana grinned widely as Aaron hoisted her off of Yanmega, feeling the sandy grass crush beneath her tennis shoes in front of the pokemon center. The loud buzzing still rung a bit in her ears, like a loud motorcycle engine, but it didn't deter her mood in the slightest.

"Can we do that again?" she asked, eager for another ride on the dragonfly pokemon.

"Maybe later, after you finish your errand," Aaron smiled at her enthusiasm before looking at Yanmega. He buzzed lowly to the ground before landing on a nearby rock, trying not to show that he was fairly tired. "And after Yanmega gets a little rest. He's not used to carrying two people, especially this far."

"Okay," she shrugged as Aaron recalled his pokemon back into its pokeball. "So where is Professor Rowan's lab anyways?"

"Should be a little while past the pokemon center." Since Aaron seemed to know where he was going, Diana trailed absentmindedly behind him. She was finally becoming a pokemon trainer and be awarded her first starter pokemon. Which one would she pick? She thought Chimchar looked pretty cute, but she knew that appearances weren't everything; she learned that the hard way when picking Treecko when playing Pokemon Emerald, just because she thought it looked cool, despite its type disadvantage.

Normally, she picked a water type because it had fewer weaknesses than the other starters and had really balanced stats, but she didn't want to completely rule out the other two. Fire pokemon tended to have strong physical attacks and were usually more rare to come by in the wild than water or grass types, but grass pokemon usually had incredible defense and status inflicting moves. Maybe it really came down to what kind of battling style she wanted to have...

As she contemplated her choice, she began to feel her legs drag a bit. How far away was this lab? For her sake, she hoped they weren't lost. She didn't know where anything was and she wasn't the most physically fit person. Playing video-games for hours tends to atrophy the muscles a bit. She had to remind herself that the world wasn't as small or neatly confined as the pokemon games. Everything was more spread out, more real world. It made Diana think a bit. How long would it take to complete the Sinnoh League? Would it be as easy as she made it out to be? Ash Ketchum made it look a lot harder on television, but that could be because the filler episodes both had to pad the series itself off to how long it could go on before the next generation of games and dedicate itself to showing off new pokemon of that generation in each episode. Also, he never evolved most of his pokemon- EVER -and if he did, they are either released, given to someone else, or boxed off to Professor Oak.

"Diana?"

"Hmm?" She looked up at Aaron, not realizing she had drifted off so deeply in thought.

"We're here."

"Oh... Cool!" She smiled, already feeling excitement and anticipation build as they stopped in front of the pokemon lab. It had a lot of rolling fields and had a similar look of Professor Oak's laboratory, windmill included. Must be some unspoken rule that all pokemon professors must have windmills. Maybe they got cheaper energy that way?

"...This is the part where you go in," Aaron leaned over in mock whisper.

"Oh... r-right! Yes! Of course! Ha ha, I was just about to do that," Diana trailed off nervously while Aaron chuckled at her air-headedness. Why was she having any doubts? She would cross that bridge when she came to it. A lot could change in a couple of months, or however long this journey would last.

 _"'The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step...'"_ she quoted to herself, her fists clenched with confidence. Taking a deep breathe, she marched into the lab. The entrance had a bunch filing cabinets and computer equipment, desks littered with various papers, beakers, and microscopes scattered on top. A man with scruffy white hair and a brown overcoat typed frantically at his computer. _Professor Rowan..._

"Umm...excuse me, Professor Rowan?" Diana chirped, her voice coming out high and squeaky as he turned around to face her.

"Hmm? What is it? Do I know you?" His short, gruff voice and snake-like eyes made him appear mean and irritated. He had large sideburns and a huge white mustache completely covering his mouth to the point that if you plugged your ears, you wouldn't know he was saying anything unless his 'stache subtly moved.

"Ummm... well no," Diana stammered, clearing her voice. "But I've heard about you. You're the professor in Sinnoh who gives out starter pokemon to new pokemon trainers, right?"

"Yes, that is correct," Professor Rowan replied indifferently. "I take it you're a new trainer?"

"Yeah. You see, my name is Diane Brown, and I... I want to start my journey as soon as possible!" she blurted out. He looked over her briefly before getting up casually from his roller chair.

"Well, that's always good to hear," the professor spoke. "But unfortunately, I don't have any starter pokemon for you."

"What?!" Diana exclaimed.

"If you had registered your name and birth a week before your tenth birthday, I would have sent you a postcard saying that you were eligible to come over and receive your starter pokemon and pokedex, but since you have no postcard, I have no pokedex or starter pokemon for you."

"But you see," Diana explained nervously. "I'm not really from around here, so I wouldn't have gotten the postcard. Plus, I'm fifteen, not ten."

"Fifteen? Goodness, that postcard should have been sent to you years ago. What delayed you?"

"I... I just got a really late start," Diana looked down despondently before shaking her head. "But still, I really want to be a pokemon trainer."

"Please, Professor. Is there any way you can help her? She's come all this way," Aaron interjected, causing the pokemon professor to look up and notice the bug type master.

"Oh! Aaron, I didn't see you there. How have you been? How's the League?" Prof. Rowan asked, Aaron almost stiffening at his latter question.

"Fine. Everyone's fine," Aaron replied quickly, trying to act nonchalantly and dance around the question. "Been training for the League this year."

"Hmph, well I suppose so. Have to work hard to be an elite trainer," the professor nodded. "I still remember the day you started out on your pokemon journey. You were so adamant in having a bug pokemon be your starter, you wouldn't let me take no for an answer."

"He did?" asked Diana.

"Yep. Caught himself a Wurmple as soon as he could get a training license from me," Rowan smiled... I think. It was hard to tell under that mustache.

"Ohhh so you were obsessed with bug types even as a little kid, huh?" Diana smirked.

"Ha, well you know..." Aaron shrugged with a grin, trying to change the subject and take the attention off of him. "Anyways, so Professor, do you think you could maybe do the same favor for Diana?"

"Hmmm..." Rowan said thoughtfully. "Well, if you want to catch a pokemon, I've no reason to stop you."

"R-Really?!" Diana exclaimed.

"I hate that you've come all this way only to be disappointed, plus if Aaron is vouching for you, I don't see why not."

"Th-Thank you so much!" Diana cheered as the professor cleared off some of his paperwork, grabbing five empty pokeballs along with another one he had stationed on a rack alongside many other pokeballs.

"I'll let you borrow one of my pokemon," he said, handing her the pokeballs. "Some of the pokemon in the field behind my laboratory should be easy enough. Return to me once you've caught the pokemon you want, and I'll set up your trainer identification."

"Sure thing."

"Remember to weaken the pokemon before capturing it," Professor Rowan added.

"I will!" She called back before rushing outside, pokeball in hand. She anxiously did a happy dance as she held the pokeball close to her chest.

"Excited, Diana?" Aaron smirked rhetorically.

 _"Ecstatic,"_ she turned towards him with a cheeky grin before she marched towards the back field.

"You know, I could give you a few pointers, since this is your first time catching a pokemon," Aaron advised, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Thanks but I think I'll skip the tutorial on this one. I'm sure I'll get it first time out," Diana waved off, rejecting Aaron's offer. She had heard that suggestion before. Every single pokemon game she played had some dumb tutorial on how to catch a pokemon. It was for beginners who had no idea how to capture a pokemon because it was their first game, so it was very useful... for a novice. And she was no novice. Far from it, in fact. She had beaten every game she had ever played, and this one would be no different. She had her pokemon and pokeballs. Now all she had to do was catch a pokemon, and she'd be set.

"Okay, all I have to do is catch a pokemon," she repeated to herself. "Just catch a pokemon. Easy-peasy. Go pokeball!" She called out and released the lab pokemon, revealing a tannish, pink pokemon that resembled a child with brown, puffy shorts and a Mohawk.

"Tyrogue!" it called out, pumping up its muscles.

"Wow, a Tyrogue! I didn't think they lived around here," Diana exclaimed, looking up and down at the rare pokemon. Usually you could only get these pokemon if you bred them.

"Well, the professor studies evolution, so some of the pokemon he studies have unusual evolutionary patterns," Aaron explained. "Sometimes the other professors send him pokemon from their regions."

"Makes sense. Tyrogue does evolve a bit strangely," Diana said thoughtfully before she heard a slight rustle in the grass, revealing a small brown and white bird. "What's that?"

"It's a Starly. It's a flying type," Aaron said, handing her his pokedex. "This might help a bit. It will show you all the moves your pokemon knows, and its health bar."

"Hmm... I guess a flying type's pretty good to have starting out," Diana shrugged, putting the pokedex in her pocket before ordering her pokemon. "Okay Tyrogue, use tackle on that Starly!"

"Tyrogue!" Tyrogue called out as it elbowed Starly hard, blowing it back several feet before it cried out and flew towards it with a fast tackle. The fighting type smirked before dodging.

"Nice dodge! Now tackle it again!" Diana ordered, but the fighting type was already way ahead of her. In an instant, he brought the bird down to the ground with his right arm.

"Star..." Starly cried weakly, its wings twitching slightly in pain.

"Alright, it's weakened! Go pokeball!" Diana cheered before throwing a red pokeball at it. It flew over the target, missing the pokemon by a mile as it fell onto the ground yards behind it, breaking the button that opened the pokeball and rendering it useless. "Huh?" Seeing its opportunity to escape, the Starly quickly flew up into the air.

"Don't worry, you'll catch it next time," Aaron cheered, patting Diana on the back while her face held a dumbfounded expression. Feeling like her pride had been hurt, her face scrunched up in anger as she abruptly shook Aaron's hand off. Why didn't it work? She thought she did everything right. Maybe she didn't weaken it enough.

"Maybe this time you could-" Aaron began before Diana cut him off with an order to Tyrogue.

"Tyrogue, use tackle on that beaver thing over there!"

"Bidoof," Aaron replied.

"Whatever!" Diana growled as the fighting pokemon charged towards the frightened beaver pokemon. _Seriously, all I have to do was catch..._

The same incident was repeated, this time the pokeball zoomed towards the left as the Bidoof scurried away.

_Just one..._

A pokeball was launched at a pair of Shinx, who ran under the fence and scurried into the forest.

_Lousy..._

Tyrogue, becoming too impatient with a Budew and irritated that Diana wouldn't let him finish off opponents, knocked it out instead.

_POKEMON!_

A Psyduck turned to look at Diana before it was quickly smacked in the forehead with a pokeball right between the eyes, the ball bouncing off and rolling at its feet. It looked dumbly at her pokeball before it went on its merry way.

"NO! GODDAMN IT!" Diana cursed as she gripped her hair, causing a nearby Eevee to wake up from its nap. Diana was absolutely furious that she was down to her last pokeball, all because she wasted her other one on a stupid Psyduck. "Why can't I catch a single stupid pokemon?!"

"Whoa- hey! Calm down! It's okay!" Aaron eased before Diana quickly cut him off with a glare.

 _"No_ , it's not okay! I've done everything right!" Diana growled in frustration. "I've weakened the pokemon, kept it from fainting, and threw a pokeball! I should be done already! So what the hell am I doing wrong?!"

"It's your aim," Aaron replied simply.

"My what?" she deadpanned, turning her head towards him.

"Your aim. It's off," he repeated as her eyes narrowed.

"What do you _mean_ 'my aim is off'? Sure, I kind of suck at throwing, but I totally hit that pokemon last time."

"You didn't hit its pressure point," he stated a-matter-of-factly, throwing Diana for a loop.

"...Come again?"

"The pressure point. The pokeball is supposed to automatically line up and connect to the pressure point of each pokemon to make catching easier. That's how you won't be able to miss if you throw. It lines up like a heat-seeking missile," Aaron pointed to the pokeball in her hand. "You're supposed to activate it when you tap the button and get ready to throw the pokeball."

"...Why didn't you tell me this before I wasted four perfectly good pokeballs?" she grumbled irritably, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I tried, but you seemed too into it to listen to anything I said," Aaron shrugged. She had thought the pokeballs she were throwing were kind of small. Diana hunched over in defeat. _I should be smacked for my own stupidity._

"I'm sorry I got mad. It's just... this is supposed to be the easiest part of the journey," she sighed apologetically, rubbing the back of her neck before she looked up towards the sky. "If I can't do this right, then... what's the point in me becoming a trainer at all?"

It was something Diana never thought she would ever say, something she never wanted to come to terms with: her mother _actually_ being _right_ about her games. What kind of career was a pokemon master anyways? You fought against eight gym leaders, then beat the Elite Four and the champion, and then what? There was no point... It was all too easy. And now, when a simply task was harder than ever, what was the point in even trying?

"Hey, don't let something like this defeat you so early. Where's all that spirit I saw when I first met you?" Aaron advised, putting a hand on her shoulder as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Look, I'm sure if you keep trying, you'll get there. Nobody's great the first time they start out. I know I wasn't."

Somehow, that didn't make Diana feel any better. Unlike Aaron, she had trained tons of pokemon beforehand, but she felt guilty for ignoring his advice from before, so she decided to listen this time.

"I was a complete crybaby when I first began my journey," he recalled with a certain air of bitter nostalgia. "I would get so mad after I lost a battle, I would put all the blame on my pokemon when it really was me who was at fault. I almost lost my best friend because of that... But now, because I learned from my mistakes, I became a better trainer and an excellent bug type expert. I even fought against the Elite Four."

"You fought the Elite Four?" she gaped. Usually when someone was all about a singular type and had no variation, it was really easy to pick them off as weak.

"Yep. And I lost. Badly. But it taught me to never stop trying. They gave me a good goal to become the best that I can be, and I'm sure that your difficulty in throwing a pokeball is only the starting line of your pokemon journey. _'The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,'_ right?"

"I... I guess," she glanced down at her feet. _I can't believe he quoted me on that._

"Besides, if you let this beat you, then the other trainers from the League are going to have a cakewalk when they fight against you," Aaron joked causing Diana to smile a bit. Maybe he was right. Ever since she had ended up here, she had acted like she knew everything there was about the pokemon world, when in actuality, she knew virtually nothing about this world.

In this world, pokemon weren't just icons or programs in a machine. They were actual, living creatures here, with independent thoughts and feelings, and that meant that the world they lived in had different rules that couldn't be read or figured out in any guidebook or unlocked with a bunch of cheat codes. Maybe she needed to stop acting like she knew everything and actually start learning from her mistakes by listening. It was going to be hard. Boy, was it going to be hard, but that's what life was really about. To struggle and get better, to become stronger, to _survive_. Maybe it's why she liked the games so much. To live and grow and become stronger through your experiences and your pokemon.

"I think... I think I'm ready to try again," she finally breathed out.

"Atta' girl. Get right back on the Ponyta!" Aaron declared enthusiastically with a thumb up pose, causing Diana to look at him with a weird expression.

"...You've never said that before in your life, have you?" she smirked.

"Nope," he grinned before he proudly put his hands on his hips. "So are you ready to learn how to catch a pokemon?"

"Yes, Aaron-sensei. I am ready to study at the hands of a master," she bowed dramatically, using a mock Japanese accent.

"Good. Now all we need to start is-" Aaron began.

"Tyrogue," Diana interrupted. "It's gone!"

"What?" exclaimed Aaron. "It must have wandered off when you were throwing that little temper tantrum back there."

"Was not a temper tantrum..." she mumbled.

"Anyways, it couldn't have gotten far," Aaron looked around, ignoring her comment. "Tyrogue tend to challenge just about anybody to a fight. It shouldn't be long before we find it."

Nearby, a young Eevee was sunbathing in the grass, curled up in a nest she had made for herself. She had been told that wild Eevee tend to make their own nests wherever they wandered. Because of their high adaptability and their unstable cells, they could be found anywhere, except... there weren't many wild Eevee left. Any left were captured, evolved, or were forced from their homes. She wasn't really sure how to act like a wild Eevee except from the stories older pokemon had told her. She appeared to be fairly lonely, but she didn't seem to care. Her mind was filled with other odd things like how to get an Abra to open its eyes or what a Diglett's feet looked like. Many thought her to be strange like that, and would refuse to approach her. However, one particular pokemon seemed to not understand this.

"Ty-ty rogue!" the Tyrogue said, which translated into _'Battle me, Eevee!'_

"Wee-vee...," Eevee began before she turned her head away. "Eevee-eve-weeve?" _I have no interest in battling you, Tyrogue... Why don't you enjoy the nice weather we're having?_

 _"Naps are for weaklings,"_ Tyrogue scoffed, mildly annoyed that the fox pokemon had gone back to napping in the grass. _"Fine, if you won't fight and make the first move, then I will!"_ he declared before charging in to tackle the Eevee. She yelped, knocked out of her nest that was quickly trampled by Tyrogue. _"Maybe now, you'll take me seriously now that your stupid bed is ruined."_

She got up and looked up at the Tyrogue with a strangely dead and far off look in her eyes. _"If your going to be this unpleasant, I suggest you leave before things get really ugly,"_ she replied in a spacey, monotone voice.

 _"Ugly? Tch, that's rich, coming from you,"_ he sneered before he heard a loud female voice.

"Aaron, I found Tyrogue!" Diana called out, her green haired friend joining quickly behind her.

"What did I tell you? Picking a fight with another pokemon," Aaron sighed before he squinted. "Is that an Eevee? I thought they were almost extinct in the Sinnoh region."

"What?" Diana exclaimed.

 _"Hmm... extinct huh? Guess that means you better give up now and come quietly,"_ Tyrogue smirked.

 _"Hardly an excuse to just give up. In fact, that gives me more of a reason to fight than anything,"_ Eevee replied, getting into a defensive stance.

"Alright, I'm game for catching an Eevee. Tyrogue, use tackle!" Diana called out, Tyrogue already way ahead of her as he tackled the Eevee. The fox pokemon sniffed at his attack and threw sand at his eyes, blinding him. "Don't get discouraged, Tyrogue! Use Foresight to track it down!"

Tyrogue finally got the sand out of his eyes and locked onto his target as the Eevee geared up for an oncoming tackle. "Now use Fake Out!" He clapped his hands in front of the Eevee's face right before it could tackle, causing her to freeze up and flinch. He used that opportunity to tackle her to the ground. The weakened Eevee struggled to get up.

"Awesome job, Tyrogue!" Diana cheered as she reached for her spare pokeball, but Tyrogue wasn't finished with her yet. He charged in with another tackle, only for her to roll out of the way.

"Tyrogue, stop it! As much as I want to catch an Eevee, it's not nice to pick fights with pokemon," Diana called out to Tyrogue as she tried to return him into his pokeball.

 _"Then clearly, you're in the wrong line of work,"_ Tyrogue chided, knowing she couldn't understand him, as he was about to launch another punch before he dodged a red glow.

"Tyrogue, return!" Diana ordered, but it kept dodging the return flash.

"It doesn't respect you. It won't listen," Aaron frowned, worried the situation was getting a bit out of hand. "Diana, recall him! He's going to hurt that Eevee!"

"I'm trying, but he won't get into the ball!"

 _"Why do you keep coming after me?"_ Eevee asked her opponent.

 _"Because I'm here to beat you and bring you back!"_ Tyrogue called out as he launched a Fake Out attack. Suddenly, his punch was blocked by a strong silver tail. It curved, almost like a moon shaped saber before it blew him back.

"That was Iron Tail... Since when can Eevee learn Iron Tail?" Diana gaped.

"It can't. That means that this Eevee is specially trained. Probably bred for it," Aaron exclaimed as the Eevee began to parry every blow Tyrogue sent at her. "It might have been abandoned by its trainer."

"Aaron... the pokedex you gave me... Can it lock onto other pokemon and show me their information?" Diana asked, unconsciously pulling at the pokedex in her pocket before Aaron shook his head.

"Not unless you catch the pokemon. But it does show you their level and health." She glanced down at the status information. Tyrogue was low on health, but the Eevee's was dwindling fast. If she didn't act fast, there would be a chance that both pokemon could be badly hurt as a result. Wait! Status! That was it!

"Aaron, do you have any pokemon that can use any status moves?"

"Yes, why?" His brow furrowed in confusion, curious what Diana was up to.

"If you can use a status move on Tyrogue, then maybe that could slow it down enough for me to return it," Diana said as she clutched a pokeball in hand. "I don't want to hurt either of them too badly if I can avoid it."

"Sounds like a plan," he grinned before he reached for a pokeball on his belt. "Go Beautifly! Use Stun Spore on Tyrogue!" Aaron ordered as a large colorful butterfly pokemon flashed out of the pokeball. Not even having to see the opponent, it raised its wings high and blew large blasts of orange powder at the fighting type pokemon, knocking him out in an instant. Diana finally recalled him into its pokeball and looked up at the bewildered Eevee, who had not expected this turn of events. Diana lifted a pokeball from her pocket, pushed the center button and tapped the pokeball to Eevee's head, causing the pokemon to zoom inside in a red flash. The pokeball rocked briefly back and forth before it clicked off, signaling the capture.

"Finally!" Diana sighed in exhaustion, picking up the pokeball. "That was way more trouble than it was worth..."

"At least you caught a pokemon," Aaron shrugged before looking off in the distance. "Right in time too. It's getting pretty late. We should probably head back to Professor Rowan and tell him the news."

"Yeah. And probably should get these two healed up too."

* * *

After using the professor's personal healing machine, they told him everything about their adventure. By the time they finished, the professor's eyebrows shot way up.

"You say it was an Eevee that you caught?" Professor Rowan asked.

"Yeah, I thought it was weird too," Diana said thoughtfully. "I didn't think there were any wild Eevee in Sinnoh... or anywhere for that matter."

"There aren't. That Eevee was actually one of the pokemon I was studying," he grumbled reproachfully. "I had no idea that it was gone up until now. Bill, one of the pokemon researchers, gave me an Eevee to study during my visit in Kanto. He hatched it there in his laboratory, but he always said it was a bit... odd. Despite it growing up there, it hated being in the lab. This is the third time this week its tried to escape. The fact that you caught it proves that it managed to destroy its pokeball and release itself."

"I didn't know a pokemon could do that," Diana exclaimed in shock.

"Hmph well, that Eevee was always pretty smart," the professor added bitterly. "I'm sorry to do this, but if you haven't caught anything else, I'll have to take the Eevee back."

"What?" Diana's look was both shocked and hurt from betrayal.

"I do feel bad about you having to spend all that effort for nothing, but those were the only spare pokeballs I had on-hand," he said apologetically. "You can always wait until I order another set of starter pokemon from my breeder, but it might take a couple of weeks. I wish I could help you out, but all the pokemon I have here I'm using for research."

Diana frowned as she looked down at Eevee's pokeball in her hand, sad that her journey ended as soon as it began. But... she didn't want it to end. She grew a little from this experience. She didn't want to be all for naught. Gripping Eevee's pokeball with newfound courage, she asked, "...What if I just take one of those?"

The professor looked up at her in surprise before he quickly deducted her thinking and shook his head.

"I highly wouldn't recommend it."

"Why not? I mean, I did catch it," Diana ushered. "You said that whatever pokemon I caught, I could keep."

"She does have a point, professor," Aaron added, Rowan thinking hard about the situation before shaking his head.

"Usually it's very difficult having an inexperienced pokemon with an inexperienced trainer. Most of the pokemon we study here haven't ever left the laboratory."

"Isn't that kind of bad for research?" Diana cocked an eyebrow. "It clearly doesn't like be cooped up in a lab. Maybe a little exploring outdoors is what Eevee really needs. Plus I'll take really good care of it. I may be new trainer here, but I'm far from inexperienced with pokemon."

"Hmm... Well since you're so anxious, I'll make you a deal. My previous lab assistant, Lucas, just left for Hoenn to do field research with Professor Birch's son Brendan, so I'm a little short staffed at the moment. Since some of my pokemon haven't really gotten out of the lab, it might be a good experiment to see how the environment furthers their development," Rowan explained. "If you report back to me regularly about Eevee's development, along with any other pokemon you find on the way, I'll let you take her."

"...Her?" Diana blinked.

"You didn't notice it was a girl?"

"It... it's a she!?" Diana exclaimed, still a bit in shock. Breeding a female Eevee was tough enough, having a twelve percent chance of hatching, but finding a female Eevee was almost impossible!

"Is that a problem?" Diana quickly shook her head.

"N-No, no! Not at all!" She said cheerfully, not wanting to make the professor reconsider their deal. "I'll take you up on your offer, Professor. So what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Checking in every week with an email will be fine enough. Don't worry about there being nothing to say. Just put in the email 'no further developments.' Also, here's a list of pokemon with unusual evolutions." He handed her a list of pokemon names, some of which she had never even heard of up until now. "If you happen to find any of them and capture one, would you please send it to my lab so that I could study if further?"

"Sure thing, as long as I get those pokemon back," she replied as she took the list from him and tucked it into her pocket.

"While I have you, Professor, there is something I want to discuss with you," Aaron interjected.

"Hmmm? Yes? What is it?" Rowan asked.

"On our way here, Diana says she was attacked by a strange pokemon at Send Off Springs."

"Is this true?" the Professor exclaimed in alarm, causing Diana to back up awkwardly.

"Well, attacked is a strong word..." Diana trailed off, not really wanting to delve too deep into the matter. Aaron noticed this, but didn't mention anything beyond that.

"Anyways," Aaron continued. "She said the pokemon looked like a dragon with wings but no arms or legs. Do you know any pokemon that look like that?"

"Can't say that I do. Hmm... This matter may need more discussion," the Professor pondered deep in thought. "If I have anymore information, I'll let you know. Do you have a pokégear?"

"What's a pokégear?" Diana was clueless on the matter.

"I have a pokégear, Professor. You can contact me until we get one fitted for Diana," Aaron stepped in, handing Rowan a number on a small slip of paper.

"Hmm, very well," Rowan nodded before he turned towards Diana. "Diane, before I forget, let's get your training license all settled. One of my aids will take you in the back and take your picture so we can print it on one of our blank trainer IDs."

"Oh. Okay," she said before one of his lab assistants guided her towards a camera shoot similar to the DMV she knew back home. She quickly fixed her hair and smiled at the camera and before long, she had a Trainer ID in her hands.

"Looks like everything's taken care of. I'm afraid you'll have to go without a pokedex at the moment, but I should be able to deliver one to you in a couple of days."

"Don't worry, Professor Rowan, she can borrow mine," Aaron offered as Diana pulled the pokedex out of her pocket, remembering absent-mindedly that she had put it in there earlier.

"Looks like she already has," Rowan added with a chuckle, causing Diana to flush with embarrassment. "I'll be sure to let you know when the new starter pokemon are in, Diane. I feel like I owe you that much. Until then, good luck to you, Miss Brown."

"Thank you, Professor," she said as she shook the professor's hand. Guess he wasn't such a scary guy after all. It wasn't until they had left the lab that Diana lost composure.

"I can't believe it... I got a pokemon. My first real pokémon!" Diana squealed, her eyes gleaming with joy while Aaron just stared at her outburst with a smile. This was what he was missing. The beginning and excitement of a new journey, the thrill of getting their first pokemon. This was what it means to start out on a pokemon journey.

"So now that you've got your pokemon, we should probably spend the night at the Sandgem Pokemon Center, since it's getting so late," Aaron began before he heard a loud gurgle come from his stomach. "...After we get a bite to eat first. I think I saw a café nearby." _We?_ Diana's eyes furrowed at his offer, Aaron becoming more unnerved by her stare.

"W-What?"

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she questioned, suspicious of his motives. "You not only let me, a complete stranger, ride your Yanmega, but you also went out of your way to take me to see a professor miles away, gave me advice, lent me your pokedex and pokégear- whatever that is -and now you're buying me dinner? What's the catch?"

"There's no catch, I swear," Aaron waved off nervously, but Diana wasn't buying what he was selling. She knew how most guys worked. No one did anything for somebody out of the goodness of their heart without having a few motives. At least, not for her anyways.

"You do all of this great stuff for me, and you expect me to believe that there's no catch?"

"I... I just... It's just that I know how hard it is to start a pokemon journey," he admitted, causing Diana's guard to drop a bit from the innocent expression on his face. "And by the way I found you at the springs, you don't look like you have much on you. I only want to help, honest."

Diana crossed her arms and studied him. He seemed like a genuinely honest, okay guy, but Diana wasn't much for charity. Her circumstances were special to say the least, but she could take care of herself. Maybe she could meet him in the middle some way, since the thought of dinner made her stomach ache.

"Okay, how about instead we settle this with a one-on-one pokemon battle? Loser has to pay the other for dinner."

* * *

**Meanwhile...**

Professor Rowan was pulling together some documents before he heard the whoosh of the Lab's front doors. He turned towards the sound, but no one was there. With a gruff huff, he turned back towards his work, thinking it was one of his assistants leaving for his break. He was examining a blue see-through pokemon egg that was made up of a gelatinous substance and contained a circlet of eight glowing yellow orbs around a single red embryo. He had received it from a pokemon ranger from Fiore during his travels to the Kanto region and was currently studying its unique properties.

"Hmmm... interesting. The subject shows little-to-no movement, even when exposed to pokemon with Flame Body abilities or Magma Armor, but occasionally glows every hour or so, especially under ultraviolet light or direct moonlight, and prefers to be immersed in tepid salt water. Maybe Professor Elm was right when he said a pokemon trainer would be the only thing to make an egg hatch?" Rowan thought aloud, rolling his pencil between his fingers in deep thought before he sighed and stood up from his office chair. "Maybe I'll think better after I have a snack..." He turned off the screen viewing device on the egg container and left the room, the door slightly cracked open.

Moments after Rowan had made his way towards the kitchen and was out of earshot, the sound of a pokeball opening was heard. The vent above Rowan's desk was carefully popped out of its frame, not wanting to make any loud noise as a sixteen year old girl with bright hazel eyes peaked her head from the open vent. Two slivers of her maroon, auburn hair peaked out on her forehead underneath her black beret cap, the rest falling down towards her shoulders until it wound into a braid that ended at her butt.

 _Perfect. Now's my chance!_ the girl thought before she was lifted down by her Aipom, its tail hand gripping the top of the vent while its real hands held onto the girl's waist as he lowered her down. Her braid hung loosely from her head like a rope in gym class and almost equally as long as she reached down from the ceiling and exchanged the container with a replica containing a Tentacool egg, an egg that had very similar-looking properties to the egg she was stealing. Normally, she wasn't very interested in stealing pokemon, even if they were considered mythical or pseudo-legendary. It was jewels she was after, and if the legends were true, she was about to be rich beyond her wildest dreams.

Right as she was caught up in this fantasy, however, she had forgotten about the vent and accidentally dropped one of her pokeballs onto the professor's desk. After carefully balancing the container with one arm, she managed to snag the pokeball and was quickly lifted up back into the vent just before Rowan came through the door with a couple of candy bars in his arms and one in his mouth. He sat back down at his desk before he noticed a pokeball was missing. He had thought he had placed it back with his other research subjects on the shelf, but Tyrogue's pokeball was nowhere to be found. All that was left behind was an empty pokeball.

 


	4. Dine and Dash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana has her first pokemon battle and decides on a new lifestyle choice.

"How about instead we settle this with a one-on-one pokemon battle. Loser has to pay the other for dinner." Diana wasn't terribly hungry, since she had already eaten dinner a little while ago, but she wasn't opposed to having a light snack or dessert, not to mention she would be getting some starter cash out of the deal.

"What if you lose?" Aaron asked.

"Then it will be my problem to deal with. I'll pay you back later," Diana shrugged before looking up at Aaron with a smirk. "Or are you so confident that I'll lose?"

Aaron was taken aback from Diana's sudden swell of confidence. She was a rookie trainer, but the way she stood and held her ground made her appear like she was a champion. Was this the same girl who was on the brink of tears earlier? Seeing this, he felt a shiver of excitement roll up his spine. Sensing the ambition burning from her eyes, it made him almost want to fight her at his best. Of course, he couldn't go full out on her -she was just a rookie and he was an elite four member- but that didn't mean he couldn't challenge her.

"How about this? To make the match fair, I'll use a newly caught pokemon of mine," Aaron suggested as he pulled out a pokeball latched onto his belt. "It's a low level, and I haven't trained it at all, so it should be a fair match up."

"Sounds good to me," Diana clutched her pokeball and almost impulsively threw it onto the battlefield before she stopped herself. The anime and games never specified how the pokeball was supposed to come back to you, so instead, she simply held the button down to release her Eevee.

"Weeeeev," the Eevee cried before looking around in confusion as Diana knelt down to her eye level.

"Hi Eevee, I'm Diane Brown, your new trainer," she greeted before winking. "But you can just call me Diana!"

"Weev?" The Eevee curiously tilted her head.

"Professor Rowan asked me to look after you, so you don't ever have to be in that stuffy lab again," she patted Eevee's head before getting up and putting her hands on her hips. "And to christen the occasion, I think I'll give you a nickname." She observed her Eevee, who started curiously batting a blade of grass. "Hmm... what about Eve?" Diana suggested, the name instantly gaining the attention of the Eevee.

"Eeeeevee!" the Eevee cheered happily.

"Well then, that settles it," Diana laughed.

"Why Eve?" Aaron asked.

"Because she reminds me of a favorite character of mine and I'm not really sure what she's going to evolve into," she shrugged, not really having a particularly creative reason as to why she thought of it. "Now that we're done with formalities, how about you release your pokemon so we can start the battle?"

"Just waiting on you," he smirked before throwing out his pokeball. "Go Kricketot!" A glittering yellow-orange, cricket-like pokemon came out in a white flash and appeared by Aaron's feet. It had a red button nose and its body appeared to look like it was wearing a high collared tuxedo. The pokemon probably was no bigger than his shoe.

"Oh my gosh... that... has to be... the _cutest_ bug pokemon I've ever seen!" Diana squealed, the pokemon's antennae barely coming up to Aaron's ankle, as she pulled out its pokedex entry: _Kricketot, The Cricket Pokemon. Its legs are short. Whenever it stumbles, its stiff antennae clack with a xylophone-like sound._

"It looks slightly different than in the pokedex," Diana observed before doing a double take. "Wait- did you catch a _shiny_ Kricketot!?"

"Sure did. Took me forever too," Aaron grinned proudly before rubbing the back of his neck. "I think I was searching in the tall grass for at least five hours." _Wow, talk about persistent..._ Diana blanched before shrugging. _Oh well, like I'm one to talk._

"You ready then?" Diana asked.

"Ladies first," Aaron offered.

"Alright then! Eve, use Tackle on Kricketot!" she ordered. The distracted Eevee looked up in confusion before it ran towards the bug pokemon.

"Dodge it, Kricketot!" Since Eve had been distracted, the Kricketot had enough time to jump out of the way, but not before it fell with a clink from an awkward landing.

"Oh my god, it _does_ sound like a xylophone when it falls! That is SO CUTE!" Diana squealed.

"That's from its antennae. They make that noise to communicate to others of its kind," Aaron explained.

"That is so cool!"

"I know, right?" Aaron gushed. "I always like how they sound in the mornings when they-"

"Quick, Eve, use another Tackle while he's distracted!" Diana whispered. Eve nodded and quickly charged across the battlefield and hit the pokemon squarely in the chest, knocking it back to the ground.

"Kricket! Tot! Tot!" Kricketot cried angrily, trying to snap his trainer out of his rant.

"Uh... Quick! Kricketot, use Growl!" Aaron stammered, finally snapping out of his rant before he felt a mental face-palm come over him. Such a rookie move... why did he have to get excited about bug pokemon and go into one of his rants now? He must've been slipping...

"Ohmygosh, that's even CUTER!" Diana beamed as the little bug pokemon puffed up its chest and began rubbing its antennae together in a growl-ish kind of noise to startle the Eevee.

"We won't be cute for long," Aaron clenched his fist in determination.

"We'll see! Eve, finish this up with Iron Tail!" Eve curled her tail into a crescent as it glowed with a shining silvery steel before it charged forward.

 _Not this time!_ Aaron thought. He would maintain control and show her what an elite four member could really do! Aaron waited for the opportune time and then shouted, "Kricketot, use Bide!"

"Ah, crap...!" Diana groaned too late as the Kricketot manages to take the hit, surrounding itself in built-up energy. She HATED that move! Still, she knew how to deal with it. "Eve, use Tail Whip!" The Eevee began to swish her tail back and forth in a mocking sort of way that lowered the Kricketot's guard, but the bug pokemon still was gathering energy. "Keep spamming it with Tail Whip!"

She couldn't do anything about the hit Kricketot had already taken, and risking an attack now would only make matters worse if it somehow survived or if Iron Tail missed. All she could do was make sure that Eve could take the hit and strike when the time was right. Ten seconds later, the built up energy inside Kricketot was at its peak. _Here it comes..._

"Kricketot, use Bide!" Aaron commanded as a white energy ball began to build up above its head and shoot out towards Eevee.

She wouldn't be able to avoid it. No pokemon could. It was a guaranteed hit, so since she had nothing else to lose, she quickly shouted, "Eve, use Iron Tail to cut right through the Bide!"

Eve charged forward and somersaulted in the air before swinging her steel colored tail down on the blast, kicking up a massive cloud of dust from the explosion. As the dust settled, a knocked out shiny Kricketot lay on the ground and a barely conscious Eve struggled to stand.

"Kricketot... is unable to battle. The winner is Diane Brown," Aaron blinked in surprise as Diana whooped and hollered at her victory before quickly scooping Eve into her arms.

"We did it, Eve! Way to hold your ground! You took that hit like a freaking BOSS!" Diana praised before snuggling her Eevee.

"Eeeevwee..." Eve smiled weakly as she pushed her paw on Diana's face.

"Return, Kricketot," Aaron recalled his pokemon before pulling a potion out of his orange backpack. "Here, use this."

"Thanks," Diana nodded as she tried to figure out how to open the potion. "Uhhh..."

"Twist the nozzle on the end so that it unlocks, and then spray it on the wounds. It might sting a bit, so be careful with her," Aaron instructed with a chuckle, Diana easily picking up his directions as she began to spray Eve down. The Eevee winced but soon relaxed after the numbing agent in the spray took over.

"This stuff really works well. That Bide attack looked like it hurt," Diana gazed in astonishment at the miracle potion while Aaron went over their battle in his head. His brow furrowed, not coming up with any solutions before he just decided to ask.

"Hey Diana, I'm curious, what exactly did you do for Eve to survive the attack? I thought for sure that Bide would have caused Eve to faint."

"Well, I knew there was no way we were going to be able to avoid the Bide attack, because it always hits, so I thought we could at least cut the damage in-half so Kricketot would be hit as well. Kind of using a person's power against them," she explained. "Plus, it didn't hurt that Eve lowered Kricketot's defense with her tail whips."

"How did you know that cutting through Bide was going to work?" he asked.

"I didn't. It was just a hunch, is all," Diana shrugged, causing Aaron to gape in shock. "I remembered that the pokedex said that Kricketot have short legs and that it stumbles a lot, so I figured with an energy blast that strong, it wouldn't be able to hold its ground as easily as Eve could, especially since she put so much pressure against the blast. I think that because she did that, the blast didn't fully hit her."

He shook his head. He almost couldn't believe it. This girl, who couldn't even open a potion or throw a pokeball properly, had beaten him. She was an amateur in every way, and yet she seemed to have the right instinct for battle. He wondered how she would turn out as a trainer if she decided to take on the League. He smiled in eager anticipation to see her challenge him properly with a full party of strong pokemon.

"Well then, I do believe I owe you dinner," Aaron stated, putting his hands on his hips as Diana got back onto her feet.

"So if I don't order a whole lot, do I still get paid for my battle?" Diana asked curiously.

"Hey, I thought I was just covering dinner. That was the deal," he mock frowned, pretending that he cared about the money.

"Well, a girl's gotta live off of somethin'," she shrugged before turning out her pockets. "I don't really have any cash on me."

"Not even in that purse you're carrying there?" He pointed towards the bag slung around Diana's shoulder.

"Oh, you mean my flute case? No, it doesn't have any cash either," Diana said before stopping and thinking out-loud, "You know, I've had that slung around my neck this whole time and completely forgot about it..."

"You play the flute?" Aaron asked curiously, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm a first flautist for my school marching band," she explained proudly. "At least, I _was."_

"Was?"

"Well, I am doing this whole trainer thing right now, aren't I?" Diana gestured towards her outfit and Eevee.

"Fair point- hey, wait a second!" Aaron exclaimed. "How were you going to pay me back if you lost?"

"I dunno. I probably would've played a few songs on the street for some spare coins. I've done it before," she shrugged, scratching Eve behind the ears. He didn't know all that much about this girl. Could it be that she was from a poor household and had to live in the streets? It did explain the lack of gear and poor choice in clothing for the season. Thinking that this was the case, he resigned towards her suggestion earlier.

"Well, if that's the case, I'm sure I can give you some money, along with dinner."

"Really? Thank you so much," she smiled before he added, "if..." She should have known there were strings attached. There was no such thing as a free lunch or, in this case, dinner. "If what?"

"If you play me one of your songs," he added with a sly smile. "I want to be reimbursed for my patronage."

"Alright, but as soon as I earn any money from pokemon battles, I'll pay you back," she resigned, pretending that it bothered her to have to play for someone. "I know you don't have to pay me extra, but I'd feel a lot less guilty about asking for money."

"It's a deal," he cheered as he shook her hand before he added with a laugh. "Just try not to order anything too expensive."

"I promise not to bankrupt you," she chuckled, setting Eve down on the grass so that she could walk next to her. "By the way, how does the whole money system work with trainers anyways? No one's really explained it to me."

"Clearly," Aaron smirked at Diana's pout before laughing. "Kidding! When trainers battle other pokemon trainers and lose, it's a simple formula of the rank of the trainer class times the level of the person's last pokemon. So you say you were fighting a Biker, who normally pays 16 _poke_ , and his last pokemon is a level fourteen Ponyta: how much would you get?

"Umm..." She tallied the numbers in her head, grateful that she was actually good at math. "...two hundred and twenty four?"

"Correct!"

"Oh, okay, so how much would I have to pay if I lost?"

"Well, since you don't have an established class, your formula is 48 _poke-_ which is the standard number for unclassified trainers -times the highest leveled pokemon you have, so you don't cheat the system. So, if you had lost, you would have owed me 240 _poke_ , though there is a rule that if you don't have any money, you don't lose any money, but you'll be flagged by the PC system and less people might challenge you because of it."

"Wow, there are a lot of rules to this trainer thing than I thought..." Diana gaped before her brow furrowed. "But wait, how come I have to pay more than the biker guy just because I don't have a trainer rank?"

"Because your financial status hasn't been determined yet by the system. Think of it as a checks and balances of the economy. No one is paid more or less than what they're owed. People who do well in pokemon battles raise in ranks or claim a certain financial status get paid more than people who do the worst. Understand?"

"So you have to be the best of the best to get paid the best? I guess that makes sense...but what about that whole claiming financial status? Wouldn't it be simpler to just claim a class so that your payment is cheaper?"

"You would think that, but the problem with claiming a certain financial status is that it's harder to get out of. If you want to change it again in order to be paid more, you'll have to go through a lot of a paperwork. An unclassified trainer status has to pay more for loss, but is easier to raise through the ranks without having to claim a financial status, or having to fill out paperwork."

"Oh god, my head hurts," Diana was absolutely dizzy with this amount of information, barely managing to keep from stepping on Eve.

"Well, let's talk no more about money. I'm not really fond of the whole thing myself. Pokemon battles should be for the benefit of the pokemon and their trainer, not just for profit," Aaron smiled, though it made him a bit of a hypocrite. He was grateful that he didn't have to pay her the full trainer loss amount because his Kricketot was the last one in his party, but it wasn't because of profit. If he hadn't been only using Kricketot, Diana would be overwhelmed by the six grand she would have gotten from beating him, his Drapion being a level 57, not to mention she would've been tipped off on him being an elite trainer, and he wanted to prevent that for as long as possible, or at least until she was on her way to becoming a pokemon trainer. He didn't need _another_ fan girl.

"So where are we eating?" she asked.

* * *

It was one of those restaurants that had outdoor seating, right next to a small beach, called the Krabby Shack. It was cold from the ocean breeze, but the view was nice enough that Diana didn't really mind sitting outside.

"Good evenin', folks. I'm Rhona, and I'll be your waitress tonight," greeted a perky blonde woman with massively curly hair tucked into a bun. She looked like she was in her late twenties. "Can I start y'all with something to drink?"

"Yes, I'll have a glass of Moomoo milk," Aaron ordered, the waitress now turning towards Diana for her order.

"And I'll haaaaave...," Diana quickly looked for the beverage section before she spotted it under the desserts. "the lemonade."

"That's for pokemon, miss," Rhona corrected, causing Diana to flare up in embarrassment.

"Oh... right, ha ha," Diana blushed, not seeing the small red text underneath it as she hid behind her menu. People couldn't have lemonade? How did _that_ make any sense? "Just a fresh water for me then, please."

"Alright, sugar, I'll be back with your drinks in two shakes of a Mareep's tail." As soon as she was gone, Diana pulled down the menu from her face. Aaron, who noticed her embarrassment, decided to help her by changing the subject.

"So you're a flautist?" Aaron asked, genuinely curious about the girl he was dining with.

"Yes, I think we've already established that," Diana nodded before she frowned almost instantly. "And before you ask, _yes,_ it's what we're called -don't let anyone tell you different- and _no_ , you cannot touch or play my flute."

"Oh uh... I wasn't going to ask that," he looked down awkwardly at the table before meeting Diana's eyes. "But now I'm curious. Why?"

Diana let out a long, irritated sigh before explaining. "Because any time that I mention that I play the flute, people always want to pick it up and play it. Not only is it annoying, it messes up the polish and maintenance I have to do for him."

Aaron arched an eyebrow. "Him?"

"Yes, _him._ Meet my husband, Jethro." She pulled up her case and patted it on the back.

"You _named_ your flute?"

"Yep. Most people like to name their instruments because they spend so much time dedicated to practicing. When you're in marching band, you're practically married to your instrument. You pretty much have no social life outside of band."

 _Well, that would explain her personality a bit..._ Aaron thought. "Why is it- sorry, _he -_ named Jethro?" he corrected himself, noticing a slight glare from Diana at her "husband" being called an "it."

"It's after one of my favorite bands, Jethro Tull, and, aside from beat-boxing on the flute, which is CRAZY HARD to do, the flute solo from 'Locomotive Breathe' is the closest a flute can get to playing rock 'n roll."

"Oh... okay," Aaron nodded, having absolutely no idea who or what she was talking about, but went along with it anyways. "So how long have you been playing the flute?"

"Hmmm... I'd say maybe about ten years?" Diana thought back, trying to remember when _Pokemon 2000_ inspired her. Had it been that long already?

"Ten years!?"

"Yeah, I started when I was five, and I just loved playing it ever since," Diana explained before she leaned down and scratched the top of Eve's head, the Eevee currently doing figure eights underneath her legs and chair.

"So that means you're fifteen?"

"Going to be sixteen next March," she shrugged. "You?"

"Sixteen, going on seventeen in October, so I'm like two years your senior,"

"A year and five months, at best," she smirked resting her chin on her hands.

"Wow, you did that without even counting."

"I know. I'm a wiz at math," she grinned smugly, her usual cocky attitude flaring up like bad acne as the waitress came back with their drinks.

"Alright, here ya go, folks. So what'll it be?" Rhona took the pencil from her ear and prepared to write on her pad of paper.

"I'll have the Tauros steak burger, medium well-done, with fries on the side," Aaron ordered, causing of major wave of nausea to flush over Diana as a horrible realization came over her.

" _T-Tauros_ steak burger?" she managed to squeak out.

"Yes, ma'am. We have the best stock and selection of Tauros meat and Miltank milk in all of Sinnoh," the waitress stated proudly, Diana barely able to process any of this as she slumped back into her chair.

That's right. They didn't have cows in the pokémon world. They didn't have _any_ of her kind of animals in this world, which meant all those cute and powerful pokémon she had trained with in the games were potentially seen as food here. The video-games did a good job of omitting _that_ little detail.

"Umm... I'll just have the salad," Diana replied weakly, resigning to the only safe thing she could find on the menu that didn't involve her eating the very creatures that she captured. There wasn't some sort of lettuce pokemon that she overlooked, right?

"Are you sure? You could order more if you want. I won't be cheap," Aaron asked, concerned she was trying to starve herself to avoid hurting his feelings.

"I umm... I just don't want the other stuff on the menu..." she mumbled, ducking behind her menu in embarrassment. Aaron then came to a realization.

"Ohhh, are you a vegetarian?" She looked up at him, almost about to say the truth before she bit down on her lip.

"Y-Yeah..." she managed to spit out, the lie tasting horrible in her mouth. _At least, I am now..._ she thought to herself, cringing slightly in discomfort at the thought of having to eat something that she had trained with. At least he didn't say "diet." She probably would've clocked him if he had, no matter how nice he'd been.

"I'm so sorry. I should have been more considerate in what I chose to order. I'll have the salad too," Aaron apologized before handing his menu toward Rhona.

"No, it's fine. You can eat whatever you want. It's... it's my choice," Diana affirmed more adamantly, and with that lie, now had condemned herself to a lifestyle choice. _Goodbye, burgers! Goodbye bacon! Hello tofu and... kale. Yuck._ This was going to be harder than she thought. Oh well, it was supposed to be healthier, right? Hurts the environment less with greenhouse gases and over-processed meat and all that jazz?

"Well, next time, I'll try and pick us a restaurant that is vegetarian friendly," Aaron offered before changing his order back to what it was before. As soon as the Moomoo milk was left on the table, he pulled out a small golden jar labelled "Royal Jelly" out of his left pocket and began drizzling it into his glass.

"You put _honey_ in your milk?" Diana asked.

"Yeah. I put honey with almost about anything. It's good for your body and good for the soul!"

"If you say so..." But she doubted that much sugar, natural or not, was good for anyone. After a bit more light dinner conversation, their meals were brought to the table. Her plate was a plain green salad mixed with pecha berries, while Aaron's plate had a quarter pounder with fries. Man, oh man, did that burger smell good... She drooled over the savory scent before being thoroughly disappointed as she looked down at her salad with worn disdain.

"You mind if I borrow some of that honey of yours?" she relented, holding out her hand as Aaron gave her the jar.

"Knock yourself out." She wasn't usually one of for salad toppings, but if they were being unusual here for what to put honey on, she thought she'd at least join in and try to make the meal somewhat appetizing to her. It wasn't too bad, the honey being really sweet and organic, while the pecha berries reminding her of peaches in taste and smell, but it didn't really fill her. Aaron, on the other hand, sat back in full satisfaction at the burger and fries he had just eaten.

"Oh man, I don't think I could eat another bite," Aaron sighed, part of his quarter pounder remaining untouched.

 _I could..._ Diana thought bitterly, clenching her fits and glaring harshly at the sandwich before shaking her head. No! She would stay strong! She already dug her hole, now she was going to lie in it.

"Maybe your Eevee would like the leftovers?" he offered his leftovers, noticing the burger was making her uncomfortable.

"Sounds like a good idea," Diana agreed, almost forgetting that she had a pokemon to feed. "Here Eve, here's some dinner." But the fluffy, fox pokemon was gone. "Eve?" She checked underneath the table, her seat, but there was no sign of the pokemon.

"Oh my god, where is she!?" Not even one day having been a pokemon trainer, and she's already lost her pokemon! How irresponsible was she?

"Calm down. She couldn't have gotten far. Maybe she's sniffing underneath tables for scraps?" Aaron suggested.

"I already checked under neath the tables and no one else is here but us," she explained as she rechecked the places she already looked to see if something new had happened in the last five seconds.

"Well, it could be that she went out to hunt for some food. Eevees are omnivores, so they can pretty much eat anything. She probably went to go catch her own food." That thought only terrified Diana more. Her Eevee was inexperienced and had never lived outside of Professor Rowan's lab, so who knows what would happen if she tried to hunt for the first time. If anything had happened to that poor little Eevee... no! She couldn't let her imagination run wild. Right now, she needed to focus her efforts on finding her pokemon.

"Eve!" She called out frantically and she wandered towards a grove of trees by the beach. She scanned the horizon, but couldn't find anything. She was about to give up and lose all hope before she heard Aaron cry out.

"There she is!" Aaron declared pointing towards

"Eve!" Diana cheered, immediately happy her pokemon was okay. The Eevee ran quickly towards her feet before darting back and spinning around.

"Eev-eevee! Eve!" she cried out, pawing the ground before running away.

"Wait, come back, Eve!" She almost thought she had lost sight of her before she found her under the base of a tree where the small fox pokemon was poking at a small ball of white fluff. Relief quickly turned to horror as she saw her pokemon bat at her opponent.

"Eve, no! Bad Eevee!" Diana scolded, running underneath the tree to put some separation between the two pokemon urging her hands towards the wild pokemon. "Shoo! Shoo!"

"No wait, Diana, stop! It's hurt!" Aaron warned, stopping her in her tracks. The ball of fluff, it turns out, was a very tiny blue and white bird pokemon called Swablu. Diana recognized it from playing Pokemon Emerald.

"Swa...blu..." the bird pokemon cried weakly, it's right wing bent in a very odd angle.

"What happened to it?" Diana asked, leaning down towards the the bird pokemon.

"I don't know, but it must've hurt its wing," Aaron observed. "We should bring it to the pokemon center right away."

"Never run off again, Eve! Swablus are not for eating, understand?" Diana scolded her pokemon, almost as if she expected an answer or explanation. The Eevee looked up at her and tilted her head. A little angry that her pokemon went wild and did this, she turned towards Aaron and asked, "Do you have any bandages?" He shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. All I have is a couple of potions, but that won't help reset a wing if it's broken." She looked around for any makeshift material before she felt her bag sling forwards. An idea crossed her mind.

"Here! We can use my bag's strap," she offered as she unclipped her flute case's strap and handed it over towards Aaron. He leaned in to pick up the bird pokemon, but all it did was peck viciously at his hand and withdraw further into its cloud-shaped feathers.

"Ouch..." He winced, pulling his hand back and sucking a bit on the fingers that were bit. "No good. It's too scared. Usually Swablu and Altaria aren't afraid of people, but this one won't let anyone near it." Thinking that Eve's presence was the cause of frightening Swablu, Diana fumbled around until she managed to find her pokeball.

"Eve, return!" Diana recalled her pokemon before leaning down and slowly offering her hand out. "It's okay... We're not here to hurt you," she reassured as she patiently waited for the bird pokemon to make the first move. Gradually, the little bird untucked itself and smelled her hand, watching her cautiously as Diana carefully took the strap from Aaron and gently wrapped the Swablu in a makeshift sling. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?" She smiled as she lifted the cooing pokemon into her arms.

"Good job," Aaron praised before looking over his shoulder. "The pokemon center shouldn't be too far away. If we hurry, we can be there before nightfall."

"Right."

* * *

It was about ten minutes before Diana recognized the red roofed building with a white pokeball icon on top of it, and managed to rush Swablu inside to a nurse. After a couple minutes of sitting in the waiting room, one of the Nurse Joys came out from the examination room.

"Is the Swablu going to be alright, Nurse Joy?" Diana asked almost immediately, jumping to her feet.

"Swablu is going to be just fine," Nurse Joy smiled. "Luckily it wasn't a broken wing, just a slight sprain. A little observation and a good night's rest should make it right as rain."

"Phew, that's good," they both sighed in relief. She was happy that nothing bad had happened, especially since she felt responsible for the incident.

"You two were right in bringing this little one to the pokemon center," Nurse Joy praised the duo. "Usually if a physically traumatic incident happens to a bird pokemon in its fledgling stage, there's a possibility it would have been stuck with an injury that would have made living difficult and eventually shorten its lifespan."

"Fledgling?" Diana questioned.

"This is a baby Swablu. You can tell because its wings aren't the usual wingspan of two and a half feet, and it's a lot softer than most Swablu because all of its baby feathers haven't fully grown out yet. This little one must've have fallen out of its nest."

"So my Eevee wasn't the one that broke Swablu's wing?" Diana asked, Nurse Joy shaking her head.

"Oh no. If there was any sort of trauma like that, there would have been claw or bite marks. Eevee don't usually charge head into battle without testing the waters with their prey," the nurse waved off. Diana looked down at the pokeball clasped in her hand. Guess she owed Eve an apology. "Although," the nurse continued, her expression turning thoughtful. "I'm surprised that you managed to find a Swablu this time of year. Usually the flock of Swablu and Altaria that live around here are migrating towards Hoenn right now in favor of a warmer climate for winter. I guess this little one missed the migration."

Diana's expression quickly turned into worry again. What was going to happen to the baby Swablu when this was all over? Noticing Diana's concern, Aaron asked, "Do you mind if we check up on the Swablu in the morning?"

"Certainly. Be sure to sign in on the front desk if you wish to stay the night. It's getting pretty close to curfew," the nurse smiled before turning to help a Chansey move two patient pokemon into the ER.

"It's nice that we got to help another pokemon," Diana smiled softly.

"Yup. Really helps to pay a favor forward," Aaron grinned, his comment striking a certain cord with Diana. Her expression suddenly turned blank.

"Hey Aaron?"

"Yeah?"

"Did we ever pay for the dinner we just had?" He froze, trying to recall exactly what happened during the whole commotion before an icy feeling ran through him.

"...Oh man," he moaned, face palming his forehead. "We just dined and dashed, didn't we?"

"I think so," she agreed somberly.

"Okay, tomorrow, right after we check up on how the Swablu's doing, we'll go back to the Krabby Shack and give them a nice big tip."

"Sounds fair enough, though I still kind of feel horrible about it," Diana frowned before asking, "Will you be able to afford that on top of everything else?"

"Don't worry about it. I have some money saved up that should cover it," he shoved his hands into his pockets, turning towards the front desk. "I'm going to sign us up for a room."

"Okay," Diana stood there, not really worried about Aaron trying to pull something. If she remembered correctly, the pokemon anime had bunk beds, and besides, her dad taught her self defense. If he did try anything, she would make it so he wouldn't be able to try anything ever again.

A nurse pokemon, Chansey, soon came out and handed them a room key with a small egg keychain with the number four printed on it that unlocked a door down the hallway that held, as Diana had expected, a set of two bunk beds and a small wooden desk. The only difference was that there was a direct connection to a private bathroom inside.

"I'm going to use the bathroom first, if you want to change," Aaron offered, Diana nodding as he grabbed his bag and pulled the door shut. Since she had nothing else to wear, she simply kicked off her shoes and flopped onto the bottom bunk.

She loved the fact that pokemon centers gave pokemon trainers rooms free of charge. Must be some child protection law or something, since so many pokemon trainers are young kids who have no steady income of money to pay for an apartment. Made her wonder where she was going to live after traveling around Sinnoh. Who knows even if she wanted to live in Sinnoh. There was the option of living in other regions, like Kanto or Johto. She thought Hoenn seemed like a nice place to live, but maybe it would be a bit too tropical for her taste.

All this thought of living here made her think about how she was going to survive. When she had left her world, she had unintentionally cut off all connections with any life she had back home. Here, in this world, she had no family, no friends, no records, no possessions, nothing that proved her existence. She had nothing but an Eevee, a flute case, and the clothes on her back. It was like having a clean slate. She wasn't keen on going back home- at least, not yet -but it did have a few amenities she would need at the moment, like clothes, food, shelter. Unless some sort of magic could undo how she was brought here, she would have to make due with what she had.

She pulled the pokeball from her pocket and rolled it around in her hand for a second before sending out her Eevee, who appeared on the edge of her bed in a white flash.

"I'm sorry, Eve. I shouldn't have accused you of doing something you didn't do," Diana apologized before patting the top of her pokemon's head. "I'm still new to this whole pokemon trainer thing, so just bear with me here. I promise, I'll get better." She took the Eevee's indifference as a sign of forgiveness as she crawled onto Diana's chest and curled up into a ball.

"Hey, I just finished up in there if you want to brush your teeth," Aaron came out of the bathroom after having changed into a white tank top and pale blue shorts for pajamas.

"No thanks, I'm good," Diana said as she managed to hike up her jeans to her knees without disturbing Eve, which was no easy feat.

"Aren't you going to change?" he asked, thinking it was odd she was sleeping in something fairly uncomfortable to wear to bed.

"Don't have any other clothes," she shrugged, pulling the covers over herself just to keep Aaron from staring.

"What? Why?"

"I just don't, okay?!" she growled sharply. She turned towards the wall, trying to avoid giving away too much before she let out a sigh. "Look, I didn't have time to pack anything, okay? It was a spur of the moment trip."

Aaron sat there in a dumbfounded silence, unsure of how to proceed, only managing to think of ways he could make the situation for her easier.

"Okay, tomorrow, we are also getting you a toothbrush, along with some other essentials," Aaron declared before abruptly switching off the lights. Diana suddenly bolted upright in a panic, Eve sliding down into her into her lap.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, stopping Aaron in his tracks.

"What?"

"Could you leave the door cracked open?" she admitted sheepishly. "I sometimes get up at night, and I like to be able to see where I'm going."

"Sure thing," Aaron shrugged, leaving a small glowing crack from the hall in their room before he climbed onto the top bunk and settled under the covers. That should have been the end of it, but a question still plagued Aaron's mind.

"Diana?"

"Y-Yeah?" she asked, her anxiety slipping into her voice, glad her face couldn't be seen in the dark. Did he know?

"Be honest with me... you ran away from home, didn't you?" Diana didn't move away from the wall, but Aaron could have swore he heard her tense up.

"In a way..." she admitted, finally breaking the silence, somewhat relieved that was the question he was going to ask. "I ran really, really far away from home... but I don't want to go back, at least, not yet. There's nothing for me there right now, but there's something for me here, something that I'm passionate about, so... yeah."

"Well, I guess that's all I needed to know," Aaron admitted. "But you really should call your family, just to let them know you're okay."

"Believe me, I would if I could, but I don't have a cellphone to contact them, and besides, the place my family lives at gets really bad reception," she smiled to herself at the irony.

"You could always send a letter," Aaron suggested, not seeing that Diana was already shaking her head.

"Yeah, I guess I could do that," she humored him, holding her Eevee close as she settled back onto Diana's chest. Right now, all she wanted to do was sleep. Tomorrow was a new day, the day she could officially start her pokemon journey right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a heads up, the naming system Diana is going by for her pokemon is based on videogame characters, since she's a gamer nerd. Her Eevee is named Eve after Mitochondria Eve from Parasite Eve.


	5. Mislead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana wakes up to her first morning as a pokemon trainer and deals with her insecurities while tracking down a missing trainer.

It was about 9am the next morning before Diana was rudely awoken by the sunlight streaming through the window. She blearily looked at the nightstand alarm clock that blinked annoying flashing red lights, as if to taunt her, before she muttered an illegible groan and buried her face back into her pillow. After a couple minutes of failing to fall back asleep, the sunlight somehow invading her eyelids no matter which direction she turned towards, she felt something foreign shift near her feet. Thinking it was her dog Jackson, she settled back into her pillow with a smile until it occurred to her that the bundle was much smaller than her German Shepard mix and that he had passed away two years ago.

That sudden realization caused her to jolt awake and instinctively kick back the sheets. Her anxiety only added as she noticed that, not only was it not two years ago, but this wasn't her bed. This wasn't even her room! The walls were too plain, the furniture was too simple, and the overall room was just too clean. It was just straight up _unnatural!  
_

Casting that thought aside, her attention soon turned towards the sheets again, which began to shift underneath the blankets. Unsure of what to do, Diana lifted her pillow above her head as a makeshift weapon as she cautiously lifted up the blanket, pulling it away she was like ripping off a band-aid before she felt a relieved smile spread over her face as she recognized the Eevee curled up on the foot of the bed. Eve stared up at Diana with an irritated, one-eyed glare before settling back into her slumber. It seemed that she was not a morning person either, or in this case, morning pokemon.

Even after going through the mini heart-attack, Diana now had to face the challenge of having to drag herself from the bed to the bathroom. She felt incredibly sluggish and very groggy, despite having slept for twelve hours straight, but the uncomfortable crawling of shaky adrenaline and urgency churning in her gut motivated her enough to slump toward her destination.

Since Aaron wasn't currently occupying the bathroom, she decided to get a shower in as well, which felt a bit counterproductive since she was still putting on the same, dirty old clothes, but it felt nice to wash the grime off, not to mention she got some free toiletries out of it. The pokemon center provided packaged miniature pokeball shaped soaps and shampoo bottles for guests, which Diana pocketed almost immediately afterward. It wasn't until she stepped out of the bathroom after drying her hair that she noticed Aaron was still nowhere to be found. The only proof that he had been there was a small pile of sheets she assumed was from his bed that was thrown haphazardly into the hamper.

_Where is he?_ Diana thought before there was a knock on the door. She answered it, expecting it to be him, only to be greeted by an empty hallway. Thinking she was being pranked, her eyebrows scrunched up before she heard a cheerful little cry.

"Chansey!" She looked down and recognized the figure to be one of the nurse pokemon, Chansey. The pink, egg pokemon smiled up at her and gestured towards the room behind her before Diana realized why she was here.

"Oh... come on in, I guess," Diana blinked before stepping out of the way and opening the door.

"Chan-sey!~" the pokemon nodded before she came in and began stripping off Diana's bed, much to Eve's dismay, who was rudely awakened again by suddenly being pulled off the bed and dragged across the floor.

"Weeev..." Eve groaned, looking blearily up at Diana and Chansey, the latter who was at the receiving end of a poisonous glare.

"If you're so tired, you can continue sleeping in your pokeball," Diana offered with an eye-roll after she grabbed her pokeball from the desk and called Eve back into it. Running her thumb over the ball, the teenager beamed brightly at the small red and white orb in the palm of her hand. The gleeful feeling of being a pokemon trainer had still not worn off yet. What was she going to do first? Train or catch a new pokemon? She didn't have any money, so buying pokeballs was a bust, but it didn't seem to put a damper on her spirits. With a renewed spring in her step, Diana marched towards the front desk to check up on the baby Swablu.

Thinking it was going to be just like the pokemon games, Diana expected there to be a Nurse Joy faithfully waiting at the front desk, but surprisingly she found herself greeted by vacant silence. The only thing on the counter was a sign-in sheet and a silver call bell that was engraved with "Ring for Service" into the metal. Taking that as an open invitation to do the inevitable, Diana walked over with a mischievous grin and slammed her hand excitedly on the bell over and over, impatient for assistance. It wasn't long after that that Nurse Joy rushed towards the counter, putting her hand on top of the bell.

"Yes? How can I help you?" the nurse greeted her cheerfully, seemingly unfazed by Diana's obnoxious ringing. It was like she was one of the Queen's royal guards, adamant and steadfast in her positive demeanor. Maybe that was why she was called Nurse _Joy_... or maybe she was just used to it, since the majority of pokemon trainers were kids ten and up. Diana made a mental note to try this tactic at other pokemon centers and see if she could invoke a reaction.

"Hello again. My friend and I came here yesterday with an injured Swablu," Diana asked with a bright smile as she took her hand off the bell, pretending she wasn't irritating five seconds ago, "And I was wondering if you know how it's doing?"

"Again?" Joy tilted her head in confusion before hitting her fist against the palm of her hand in realization, "Oh! You must've met my sister. Yes, she did mention a baby Swablu being brought in... and you know, now that I think about it, your friend also came by earlier and asked about it as well."

"Oh... Do you happen to know where he went?" Diana asked her hopefully. Joy shook her head.

"Unfortunately no, but I saw him leave around six this morning. That's usually when we open up our doors again to the public, so I thought it was a bit unusual that someone would be leaving so early in the morning."

"Okay," she frowned with a shrug. A strange feeling of insecurity and abandonment quickly fell over her, wondering why Aaron left and didn't tell her where he went, but she tried to ignore the sudden twisting feeling in her gut and masked her emotions.

"Swablu is doing fine, by the way, but I can bring it out to see you, if you'd like," Nurse Joy offered. Diana managed to offer her a small smile.

"That would be great. Thank you," Diana thanked her before handing her pokeball over. "Also, could you do a quick check up on my Eevee before you go?"

"Certainly. Wait right here. I'll have your pokemon back to you in just a minute," the nurse bowed before taking off towards the back with Eve in hand. Placing her hands in her pockets, the trainer took note of the different surroundings before a poster plastered on the side of the wall caught her eye. It had a red pokeball and multiple pokemon type symbols scattered all over. It read: "Pokemon League Sinnoh Regional Championship. _'Today's winners are tomorrow's pokemon masters.'_ Register today!" Before she could contemplate further about how to register, Nurse Joy appeared before her.

"Here's the Swablu, and your Eevee's all done with its check-up. Both are healthy and fighting fit!" Joy smiled as she brought in the Swablu on a roller table and her Eevee in a pokeball tray. Diana picked up and pocketed Eve's pokeball before turning towards the little bird pokemon, who chirped happily towards Diana.

"Hi!" Diana smiled, leaning down towards the Swablu until they were at eye-level. "Do you remember me?"

"Swa-swablu!" it nodded, flapping its wings a bit before settling back down. Diana cautiously let the bird sniff her hand again before she leaned in to pet its soft wings.

"Wow, it feels like large balls of cotton..." Diana's eyes widened before petting the top of Swablu's head. "It's good to see that you feel better."

"Blu! Swa-blu!" The pokemon jumped high into the air before landing softly on the desk. Wow, big jump.

"So what happens now?" Diana asked the nurse, who was running some numbers on a computer database.

"Well, since it's still a fledgling, the right thing to do would be return it to its nest so it can learn to fly, but since the annual Swablu and Altaria migration already took off without it, we can keep it here at the pokemon center until the migration comes back again in the spring. By then, its wings should be strong enough so it can rejoin its flock."

"That's awesome! Looks like you're all taken care of," Diana praised as she patted the Swablu's head again. "By the way, Nurse Joy, I have a question about the Pokemon League. Do you have to register to join in the competition or is that more of a formality?"

"All trainers that wish to participate in the Pokemon League must register for it, which you can do at any pokemon center," she explained before giving Diana a look, "But you're seriously not considering registration for this year's tournament, are you?"

"Yep!" Diana nodded before cocking an eyebrow. "...Why?"

"The tournament's only six months away." Diana shifted and crossed her arms.

"So?"

"By most people's standards, that's an awfully short amount of time to train before a major competition, and with winter coming early this year, it will be that much harder to train in the cold."

"Ah, that's not so bad. Six months is plenty of time. Besides, a little cold never bothered me anyway."

"Well, if you're sure... I can have you registered if you just hand me your Trainer ID," Nurse Joy suggested, taking Diana's ID after she fished it out of her pocket, and placed it inside a machine. After a couple seconds of whirring gears and button beeps, Joy handed back her identification card. "There you go. You're all registered for the Spring Regional tournament. I wish you the best of luck, but do be careful. The weather's been a bit unpredictable in parts of Sinnoh ever since Hoenn had that massive volcanic eruption a couple years ago, so make sure you and your pokemon rest from time to time and be sure to have enough supplies prepared for the journey."

"I'll be fine. Thanks for the warning," Diana waved nonplussed before turning to address the bird pokemon. "See you later, Swablu. Hope you find your family." After she had walked out the automatic doors, Nurse Joy went back to her usual business. A group of the Joy staff came out of the break-room with coffee and their Chanseys, putting various confections to put into their mugs.

"Where's she off to?" asked the older sister of the Nurse Joy sitting at the desk.

"Oh, she's off to Jubilife City."

"Oh dear, you didn't try and give her directions like that other boy, did you?" the other Joy exclaimed, taking her awkward silence as a yes. "Sister, you know you're bad with directions! Which way did you tell her to go?"

"I told her to take a left at the crossroads and that should send her on the pathway to Jubilife."

"Oh no, Sister! That's not the road to Jubilife. It's the shortcut through Bewilder Forest. You know that the Stantler there become more territorial during this time of year."

"Oh dear... I hope she's alright," Joy feigned with concern, but was partially glad that the bell-ringer was getting her comeuppance. Her only regret was sending out an innocent Eevee to have to deal with her trainer's mess.

"Blu..." Swablu called out softly, sad that the nice human left. The strap it had been bandaged with laid haphazardly on the desk, covered with the human girl's scent. While the pink-haired humans talked amongst themselves, Swablu scooped the strap into its mouth and, when the nurses wasn't looking, the little bird pokemon jumped off the counter and started hopping towards the door.

* * *

_Well, now the journey really begins..._ Diana thought, standing at the crossroads. She wasn't lying when she said to Nurse Joy that she was going to be fine, but that didn't change the fact that she had no money, no items, and no food, the last part emphasized by the low grumble in her stomach. Until she got her funds from Professor Rowan, that was all she would have. That, and the pokedex she had borrowed from Aaron, since she also had to wait to get her own from Professor Rowan. She couldn't even contact the professor for an advancement on her salary because the only one who had his number was Aaron. Diana face-palmed her forehead. Without even realizing it, she had become co-dependent on him. So much for heading to Jubilife City.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She was supposed to start out with money, pokeballs, her own pokedex, and walk around with a spring in her step, and a song in her heart. Guess two out of five would have to do for now. Holding up the device Aaron lent her, Diana's thoughts went back the Swablu she had rescued with Aaron. It would've been nice to catch a Swablu. A Flying Type was always a good kind of pokemon to have on any team, but since it was still a baby, it probably wasn't even able to fly yet, let alone fight. Even if the Swablu was fully grown, Diana didn't even have any pokeballs, so what good did that do?

Perplexed about what to do next, Diana spied the Krabby Shack in the distance. She had remembered Aaron talking about visiting the Krabby Shack to pay for their bill. Maybe they would have an idea about where Aaron went. Right as she stood in front of the door, a wave of hesitation hit her. What if they were still mad about the dine-and-dash? What if Aaron hadn't paid their tab and they stuck her with dish duty, dishes that _he_ was supposed to wash? After wrestling with her conscious a bit, the guilt of being a criminal drove her to pushing the restaurant door open, and to make matters worse, she spotted the waitress from yesterday almost immediately. _Great. Just my luck._

With shaky resolve, Diana plastered on an artificial grin, hoping to come off as naive and innocent, and not completely desperate as she approached the waitress.

"Hi! Umm..." Diana began awkwardly, forcing a smile as an embarrassed blush staining her face. "My friend and I ate here yesterday, only I think we forgot to pay, so I came here to apologize."

"Oh no, don't worry about it! You're already taken care of. Your boyfriend came by earlier to pay and explained everything," Rhonda the waitress sighed happily. "He was so nice and generous, he left me an enormous tip for all the trouble! You're so lucky to have such a great boyfriend," she complimented before pulling a sour frown. "All my boyfriend does is 'forget his wallet' at home any time we go out, the lousy cheapskate..."

"Okay, good. At least that's taken care of, but he's not my boyfriend," Diana thanked before correcting the nice waitress. _Why is it that a boy and girl can't have dinner and be platonic? Guess I have to have a 2+ party of friends in order to eat without assumptions._ "So, I don't have to wash any dishes?"

"Nope. Although, if you're offering..." Rhonda joked before noticing Diana's perplexed expression. The waitress gave her a blank look. "Wait, you seriously _want_ to help me wash dishes?"

"I'm considering it..." Diana admitted truthfully with a shrug. "Does it pay any?" Rhona's face scrunched up into a squinting frown.

"Not as much as you'd think. You don't get minimum wage, since you get paid mostly in tips. It's not even the lunch rush yet, so I don't think I would be able to give you more than 200 _poke_ for the small amount of dishes left." Diana's brow furrowed. That was barely enough to buy one pokeball, and with her horrible aim, that was more money wasted than spent well.

"Ah, well then, never mind. Forget I asked. I should probably be on my way," Diana waved dismissively. "Oh by the way, you didn't happen to see where my friend went this morning, did you?"

"I'm sorry, sugar. He only said he had a few more errands to run."

"Oh... thanks anyways." After saying goodbye to the waitress, Diana's smile melted away. Damn it. Another dead end. Where the hell was Aaron? What could be taking him so long? It was nice to know that he hadn't abandoned her, but she kind of couldn't move forward without him.

Maybe I should just go back to the pokemon center and wait for him. Rhonda did say that he was running errands. Maybe that meant he would come back... but what kind of errands start at 6am in the morning and last past 9am? It wasn't until she was being smacked in the face by branches and tripping over plant roots that she realized she had wandered into a grove of trees.

_Wait... where am I again?_

Looking around, she suddenly heard the rustle of leaves and grass before the outline of a small deer pokemon stepped out of the wood. Before she could even register what happened, the deer snorted as its horns began to glow a light purple and create waves that reverberated the surrounding area until it was warped and surrounded by mist. Unsure of where she was, Diana stumbled through the mist, her mind acting like a fog had gone over it, diluting her senses.

Her mind continued to haze over as she walked, the air quivering and swirling with an odd energy until she tripped over something more solid and crashed onto the ground. The fog around her began to dissipate as she hissed at the sting of the fall, the debris scuffing along the bottom part of her pants, holding her knee that had now torn a small hole in the pant-leg. She was about to curse at the thing that made her fall before she realized it was Aaron, crumpled up and unconscious on the ground.

"Aaron!" she exclaimed. By the looks of it, he was asleep, but it didn't seem to be natural. Relaying over the events that had taken place, she decided it was probably caused by a pokemon, most likely the one she had run into earlier. "Come on, Aaron! Wake up!" She tried slapping his face, but it didn't seem to have any effect other than staining his cheek with a red hand-print mark. Was this how Aaron felt when he found her?

_What other ways are there to wake a person up? Unless..._ she pulled out her flute case and unlocked it. _Maybe playing the Pokeflute song would help, since it awakens sleeping pokemon. Now, how did that tune go again?_

Either this was going to work or she was going to look very stupid for trying. Regardless, it was better than doing nothing. After letting out a small series of notes, she managed to find the right ones and played an impromptu arrangement of the Pokeflute song. It wasn't perfect. The notes came out as slightly jumbled and squeaky, her intonation slightly off from the unrehearsed piece. She wasn't even sure this was going to work, since she was just playing a normal flute, but it didn't matter because seconds later, Aaron's eyes fluttered open.

"Nice song..." Aaron mumbled with a smile. Diana let out a sigh of relief before she offered her hand, helping Aaron get to his feet before he hissed in pain and held the side of his face. "Oww... Why does my face hurt so much?"

"Umm... you must have hit it when you passed out," Diana lied as she stared at the hand print on his cheek, hoping Aaron didn't somehow own a mirror. "So this is where you've been all morning."

"I guess so. Sorry. I meant to leave a note, but I figured I would've been done with my errands before you woke up," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't expect to be ambushed by Stantler."

"Stantler?" Diana frowned.

"Yeah. I was out doing my morning jog when all of a sudden, I was surrounded by Stantler. They must have used hypnosis on me to defend their territory."

Diana crossed her arms and shifted feet, taking in his information. "That makes sense. Their horns are supposed to have reality warping powers. I think I experienced the same thing, only I think I managed to snap out of it before it took full effect when I tripped over you."

"So that's why my side aches," Aaron rubbed his side. "Oh! Before I forget... Here." He dropped his orange and black backpack before he pulled out and handed her a grey bag filled to the brim with potions and other essentials. "I would've gotten you clothes, but I didn't know your size and figured you'd like to pick those out."

"Aaron... this is... This is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. Thank you," Diana ran her hands to inspect over all of the goods. He had thought of everything. Water, matches, pokemon food. There was even a sleeping bag tucked at the bottom of the bag. How he managed to shove that many things into a tiny backpack, she'd never know, but the gesture warmed her heart.

"I figured since trainers need most of this stuff in the beginning, that you would prefer to be paid in supplies than money," he shrugged before he was alerted by a snapping twig. "We should probably get out of here before we run into anymore Stantler."

"I second that," Diana added eagerly when suddenly a loud cry rang out from the forest.

_"Lerrrooooo!"_ Almost immediately after the cry followed a large group of Stantler that seemed to appear out of nowhere, surrounding them.

"Oh boy, not again! Go, Yanmega!" Aaron blanched before calling out his pokemon. "Use Uproar!" Suddenly massive amounts of shock-waves began erupting from Yanmega's wings, causing all the Stantler and anyone else nearby to reel back in pain from the loud noise. Diana clutched her ears in pain, the sound worse than being caught between the saxophone and drummer sections.

"Argh! Make it stop!" she cried out over the loud roar as Yanmega continued to excitedly screech and quickly beat its wings, even after all the Stantler had passed out around them on the ground. Finally, after what felt like forever, Yanmega calmed down and slowed the frequency of its wing speed. Diana could do nothing but collapse onto her knees out of sheer joy. "Thank god..."

"Sorry about that," Aaron apologized. "Yanmega's wings are supposed to be so powerful that they can create horrible migraines in adults."

"I'd believe it," Diana offered sarcastically, her ears still ringing from the Uproar attack. "Just please... don't do that again. Not at least until I get some earplugs."

"Normally, Yanmega doesn't use it around other people unless it was during a battle, but since it's been a while since I've battled with him outside of training, so I kind of forgot. At this point, I'm pretty much just used to it by now."

"Jeez, what have you been putting in his food? He's knocked out the whole area," Diana commented in disbelief. The path earlier had been quiet for the most part, but now the whole forest floor was covered in fainted pokemon, having fallen down from the surrounding trees. The types of pokemon littering the forest floor ranged from bug types like Weedle all the way to flying types like Starly, but the one that stood out to her the most was the little blue and white ball of fluff that curled a couple yards behind her.

"Swa...blu..." the little bird pokemon whimpered weakly as it dizzily rolled out of one of the shrubs by the roadside.

"Hey, isn't that the Swablu from earlier?" she asked Aaron as he walked over to examine the cotton bird.

"Yeah, it's still has your flute strap sling around it," he nodded, noting the strap was wrapped around the pokemon and held in its beak. "Why didn't Nurse Joy remove it?"

"She did. Swablu wasn't wearing it when I saw it this morning," Diana frowned. Aaron rubbed the strap with his thumb thoughtfully for a moment before a dawning realization hit him.

"Maybe this Swablu was returning your strap to you, and that was why it was out here when Yanmega fought against those Stantler."

"Really?" Diana blinked in surprise before kneeling down towards the Swablu. "Is that what you wanted to do?"

"Swa-blu!" It chirped, pulling at the strap before laying it down at Diana's feet and nudging it forward with its beak.

"Thank you for returning it. I had almost forgotten about it," Diana beamed cheerfully, picking up and reattaching her strap to her case. Swablu looked at her case before sniffing and inspecting the flute Diana placed back into it and clicked shut.

"What I still don't get was how did it got past all of those Stantler..." he frowned and crossed his arms. As if on cue, the cries of more Stantler began to echo in the distance.

"Oh great. More Stantler?!" Diana grumbled irritably before pointing an accusatory finger at Aaron. "Don't you even think about using Uproar again!"

"Well how else do you expect us to get out of here without falling asleep?" her friend argued, anxiously looking for an exit or another option. There was none.

"Just... don't look at their horns," was all she could offer.

"That's kind of like trying to outrun time," Aaron defended as the herd fully surrounded them, but reluctantly returned Yanmega as he tried to keep his focus on the Stantlers' hooves.

"Just don't... look at their... horns..." Diana mumbled as her eyes began to glaze over, the forest beginning to spin again. Right as the Stantlers' antlers started producing a large haze, Swablu suddenly jumped out of her arms and let out a triumphant cry as it began producing a large, green energy shield that began to cover the group. Like before, the haze began to quickly clear away.

"That's Safeguard!" Aaron exclaimed as he slowly began to come to. "It protected us from being affected by the hypnosis."

"Well, that certainly solves our Uproar problem, but now what?" Diana suggested, but Swablu quickly fixed the situation by letting out a beautiful song that appeared to lull the surrounding Stantler into a deep sleep.

"Wow, Sing and Safeguard? What a great combo!" Diana exclaimed. "And incredibly convenient for us!"

"Yeah, but we should probably take it back to the pokemon center. Nurse Joy is probably worried sick about it," Aaron suggested as he picked up the little bird. Swablu let out a defiant chirp, pecking angrily at his hand until he'd let go and flopped enthusiastically over towards Diana.

"Guess it still doesn't like you," Diana couldn't help but grin smugly, holding the tiny bird in her arms. It was so small and squishy, she was afraid that she was going to accidentally crush it if she tried to hug it.

"Actually, I think it wants to go with you," Aaron admitted with a shrug.

"What?! Really!?" Diana exclaimed before looking down at the little bird in her arms. "Is he right? Do you want to come with me?"

"Blu!" it nodded, and Diana could not be more elated. In fact, she couldn't help but beam with pride, but it was quickly crushed by a sad realization. "But I don't have any pokeballs," she frowned. "How am I going to catch you if I don't have any pokeballs?"

"What do you mean 'you have no pokeballs'? I put some in your bag," Aaron pointed towards the grey bag on the ground by her feet. Sure enough, after she did some digging in the side pockets, she managed to pull out an unused pokeball. Enlarging the pokeball in her hand, she leaned forward to press the pokeball to the Swablu before pausing.

"Is it really okay to do this? I mean, it's still just a baby, after all. It can't even fly yet," she frowned, retracting her hand back in hesitation. "And what if I'm taking it away from its family, and they wonder what happened to their baby during the migration? I'll just end up being a homewrecker and I-"

"Diana," Aaron interjected.

"Yes?" Abruptly, his finger met her forehead and harshly flicked it.

"You think too much," he smiled, snapping her out of her rant. "If Swablu wants to come with you, it's Swablu's decision. No one is forcing it to choose or anything. It just wants to be with you, plain and simple."

"O-Okay..." was all she said as she rubbed her forehead. Diana looked back down at the Swablu and before she could change her mind, Swablu decided to beat her to the punch and pecked the little button that opened the pokeball before it was suddenly pulled into it in a white flash. The ball wiggled back and forth in her hand before it let out a satisfying "ping!" and stopped.

"Cool! I got a Swablu!" Diana cheered happily as she got out Aaron's pokedex. "And it's female too."

"Congratulations," Aaron smiled as the girl cheerfully called out her pokemon again. He definitely missed this. "Are you going to name it like you did with your Eevee?"

"Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that..." she paused thoughtfully as the Swablu pulled at her flute strap like it was a teething ring. "I'm sure I'll think of something."

 


	6. Aeroblast, Shopping, and Other Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Puns. Lots and lots of PUNS! Oh, and some celebrity drama.

Thanks to Diana's Swablu, making their way through Bewilder Forest was much easier, and it wasn't long before they arrived near the outskirts of Jubilife City. The little bird pokemon was now resting comfortably in her trainer's arms. Aaron tried to pet the Swablu once, but tiny cotton ball just kept pecking at his hand. He just didn't get it. Weren't Swablu supposed to be friendly towards humans? Whatever. There was a reason why bug pokemon were his favorites.

Aaron was considering what teammates he wanted to work on for his next round of training when they passed the official Jubilife City limits sign, which read "Jubilife City, the City of Joy." The smell of the asphalt and towering skyscrapers made the surrounding area a veritable concrete jungle. People seemed to be passing by them every second, and large advertisements were displayed on billboards, display windows, and a jumbo-tron TV. Being that it was the largest city in Sinnoh, it seemed to be the perfect place to get started. "Well, we're here," Aaron announced. "So what's the plan, Diana? You're going to challenge the League, right?"

Diana, who had been pretty deep in thought whispering a random ideas for names for her Swablu like "Aria, Pit, Cloud, Altair, and Flonne" paused for a moment in softly stroking her Swablu's wings and answered, "Hmm? Oh yeah. Actually, I already registered at the pokemon center when you were running your errands."

"Good, so that's one thing to check off the list. So which gym are you going to challenge first?"

"Well, I was thinking- wait, isn't there an order?"

Aaron shook his head. "Not really. While it's true that there are some gyms that don't like to accept challenges from trainers without a certain number of badges, legally every gym leader is required to be able to fight any kind of trainer. That means that challenges can come from people with as much six badges to four badges or no badges at all. It's because most trainers don't start their pokemon journeys in the same town."

"If that's the case then which one would you recommend?"

"Hmm... Well, from here, Canalave City's gym is probably the closest, but you'd have to catch a ferry to get there. Plus the gym leader, Byron, is pretty tough. His steel type pokemon are really bulky, so I wouldn't go there unless you have some heavy artillery. Eterna City is kind of far, but it has the second closest gym and the route on the way there is really scenic."

"What about Oreburgh City?"

"Oreburgh doesn't have a gym. At least, not that I know of. I heard that they selected a new gym leader awhile back, but I'm not sure if his gym is up and running yet."

"Oh... well I guess then..." Diana began to trail off, thinking over her options.

"If you need time to think about it, let's head to the mall real quick before making any major decisions. You still need some clothes, right?"

"Yeah... Hey yeah! That sounds like a good idea," the brunette let out an excited cheer before hesitating, "but wait, how exactly am I going to pay for anything? I'm kind of broke, and I'm not very comfortable borrowing money from you."

"No problem. The mall has a Claydol's Closet, so I think you'll be fine."

"What's Claydol's Closet?"

"It's this thrift shop that has a bunch of exchangeable clothing for aspiring pokemon trainers. Since most kids tend forget their PC log-in passwords, they can't exactly call home and have it shipped through the PC from home or access their storage, so it's not uncommon for them to be without clothes or not know how to do laundry. Since this kind of became a growing problem for beginning pokemon trainers, a couple of religious groups banded together and created a charity group which grew into a thrift store which grew into a chain that's now filled with free and discounted clothes for pokemon trainers. You have to have a certain amount of low income to qualify for the free stuff though."

"So far this, and your gregarious generosity, have been the only fortune that has come from my being poor," Diana scoffed as Aaron pulled out his old pokégear. The poor thing hadn't been used officially since his Johto days and was coming apart at the seams, being only held together by sheer willpower and black electric tape. It was still more durable than the pokétch, which was always short circuiting and having to be replaced due to him accidentally losing it, breaking it, or wearing it in the shower.

He could still get the occasional spam phone call on his pokégear when in-range, mostly from politicians or a couple of Rattata owning youngsters he had regretted giving his number to, but other than that, it was only good for map reading and catching the occasional stray HAM radio station. A few clicks of a button and a small GPS map of Jubilife appeared on the screen.

"Isn't there some sort of rule that forbids men to ask for directions?" Diana asked with a playful smirk.

"That's just a myth," Aaron waved off.

"Really?"

"Yep. Up there with Mew and the Tooth-Fairy."

"You don't believe in Mew?" Diana gaped at him in shock. "But it's a pokemon that's been scientifically proven to exist!"

"I think it's a pokemon that _used_ to exist that doesn't anymore," he corrected her.

"Well how would you know?"

"Because no one has any real proof that it still exists," Aaron explained. "There have been 'sightings,' sure, but other than that, nothing. No pictures, no living DNA, no recent skeletons."

"So? Mew can turn invisible and only shows itself to those who are pure of heart."

"That's an easy excuse."

"Well then maybe that just means you're not pure of heart," Diana teased and made an exaggerated gesture, causing Aaron to roll his eyes. This conversation certainly sounded familiar. Probably because he had almost the exact same debate with Cynthia awhile back. She was always a big fan of pokemon myths, always open to new possibilities and not wanting to rule anything out. Aaron was about to respond when he overheard something that made his blood run cold.

"Oh my gosh, Tiffany! Is that guy one of the Elite Four?" he heard one girl behind him exclaim.

"Like, oh my gosh, Martha, I think you're right," her friend gasped dramatically. In that moment, Aaron blanched and wanted to bolt and facepalm at that same time. He couldn't believe his own naivete. One of the biggest downsides of being an Elite Four member was that you couldn't just go and publicly walk down the street anymore, and he had just casually strolled into the biggest city in Sinnoh, undisguised. He could practically sense the girls behind him whipping out their cellphones and trying to take pictures of him. Normally, he was excited that people recognized him, but now it made his stomach turn. His skin felt clammy and cold, his complexion was probably three shades paler since they got here.

"Hey, are you alright?" Diana asked.

"Huh...? Oh! Y-Yeah! I'm just... I'm just not incredibly fond of large crowds."

"Are you claustrophobic or something?"

"Yeah! Sure! Whatever! Anyways, here's the mall. How about you go to a couple of stores, try some things on, and meet me back at the pokemon center when you're done?"

"Wait what? Why? How am I supposed to find you?"

"I'll find you! I have to go take a call and do some stuff. Just meet me at the pokemon center!" Aaron explained quickly before he turned to run. He hastily left Diana and made a beeline for any random store. After swiftly debating which store had the fewest amount of customers, Aaron sprinted into Diglett's Sporting Goods and dove behind a pile of folded sweaters and ski equipment.

This however proved to be a dumb decision when he realized that he was only a couple yards away from the Aerial Ace brand table filled with bug catcher nets and other products featuring a digital advertisement of himself using one of the nets to capture a Combee. Some customers were browsing nearby, only a few feet in front of him, before they stopped at the merchandise table. A little boy picked up one of the nets and tried to swing it while the others looked at the other merchandise. Afraid he was going to be recognized, Aaron snatched a black ski hat with a grey pokeball outline off of the ski equipment dummies and ducked for cover, pulling the beanie over his head and hastily putting on a red overcoat for good measure.

"That guy has a Combee like me! So cool!" exclaimed a little boy, who had picked up one of the bug pokemon starter kits. Aaron couldn't help but smile when the child ran off with it towards the cash register for his mom to buy. A teenage biker that had stood next to the kid rolled his eyes.

"Pfft, so lame. Bug types have become so mainstream ever since that guy joined the League," the biker boy scoffed and set down the pack of Aerial Ace bug bandages. "Plus, the guy has only been in the Elite Four a little over a year and a half and already, he's signing away his soul to corporations. What a sell out."

"Yeah, like it wasn't bad enough that most trainers we come across have at least one bug type to squash," his friend, a guy in jogging gear holding up a net, joined in. "Now every trainer in Sinnoh is trying to raise bug pokemon like they're freaking dragon types, like training them will give 'em some magic gateway to the League. It isn't even worth the experience beating them anymore."

"That dude's a trend that will die out faster than an internet meme." The two guys shared a laugh and then moved onto the fishing section of the store but not before the jogger carelessly tossed away the equipment he was holding. The butterfly net collided with a sharp crack against the store mannequin Aaron was currently hiding behind and clattered to the floor. The Elite Four member tentatively picked up the discarded net and dusted it off before setting it back on the table. He pulled the dark colored beanie over his eyes and after making sure there wasn't anyone nearby, stood up and sneaked into one of the changing rooms before locking himself inside. He let out a soft sigh and slumped onto the pull-out chair, his head falling into his hands.

The endorsement seemed like such a good idea at the time. Was he really such a sell-out, jumping the gun and signing up with the first endorsement deal that wanted him so early into his career? Granted, it was a small company and it not only promoted the growth of bug type trainers and pokemon, but half of the company's proceeds went to nature preserves. He even personally liked the products the company created. Did all that really make him a sell-out?

He was used to the cracks about bug pokemon -in fact, a small part of him accepted the League position just to prove the naysayers wrong- but the other stuff was cause for concern. He didn't want to be some trend or a meme or some burn-out that couldn't amount to anything but selling out for a load of cash because he peaked too early. Wanting a second opinion, Aaron fumbled around in his backpack and flipped open his private cellphone, which still looked almost brand new minus the scratches caused by his own backpack clutter. Two missed calls and three notifications. Aaron sighed before hitting redial on his phone and listened for the tone.

 _"Hey, champ-in-the-making! Been trying to get in contact with you. How's my favorite 'leet?"_ spoke a boisterous male voice from the other line.

"I'm okay, I guess," Aaron shrugged quietly, not wanting to give away his presence. "I'm looking at a large picture of myself using a bug catcher net."

_"You saw the new Aerial Ace ads! Great! You love 'em, right? I told those backwater big wigs that 'this kid is the one you want promoting your goods.'"_

"Actually, Mr. Conners-

 _"Kid, I told you, call me Clyde,"_ his agent corrected him.

"Clyde... Anyways, about the ads-"

_"Whaaaat? You don't like them? I thought you liked them. You use the nets and approved the photos we sent in."_

"I do- I mean, I did! It's just-" Aaron cut himself off. He might have been overthinking his criticism. It was just one guy's opinion, plus how would complaining about something so small as one bad comment make him come off to his agent? What would people think of him if he freaked out over every little comment? Better to just grin and bear it. "...never mind, it's fine. I was overthinking it."

_"Figures. I shoulda known. You're like me, kid. You like to be the best and wish to only be the best, and that's what I like to work with: the best."_

"Yeah sure. Anyways, I saw a couple messages from you earlier. What was it you wanted to talk about?"

_"Right! Glad you remembered. I've got another job for you. You remember that new gym leader, Rock or something?"  
_

"Yeah?"

_"Well, the League wants you to do an exhibition match with him in Oreburgh City. They say it'll really help promote the underdog image you've got going on, since he's a rock type gym leader and you specialize in bug types."_

"I'd love to do this for you, Clyde, but you know I've been taking this time off to train with my pokemon-"

_"And I get that! I completely understand! I would go and train with my Glameow in a heartbeat if I could, but I've got to put food on the table."_

"Isn't his gym still under construction?"

_"I believe it's already built, but it's undergoing renovations. He's trying to incorporate some sort of museum or theme park attraction into it, I don't know."_

"Well I dunno..." Aaron trailed off.

_"Aaron, Aaron, my main man! I can sense your hesitation, but you know how this works. You have to make sure you keep up your public image. Everybody loves you right now! You're the youngest Elite Four member in the history of Pokemon League, but that will only get you so far in life! Some people have been questioning on whether or not you're good enough to be part of the E4 because you're so young, especially with your performance in the Fall Tournament."_

Aaron couldn't help the involuntary flinch that came with the memory of his Beautifly lying face down in the dirt. His eyes cast down towards the decorative Diglett patterned carpet. He didn't want to disappoint anybody, especially his team. Was he really not doing enough? Would this affect his pokemon as well?

"...Okay. I'll try and work harder."

 _"Great! I'll email you all the details!"_ There was some office noise feedback cutting in from the background before his agent spoke up again. _"Listen, I gotta let ya go, champ. There's this idol chick who's been acting like a real diva, driving me nuts with her gig complaints and her Clefairy's hair budget. Next time you're in Jubilife, we should do lunch. Call ya soon, champ!"_

"Sure. Talk to you later," and then Aaron hung up. He didn't know why he didn't let his agent know he was in town. It would have made this conversation a lot less one-sided. All he did was sit there, locked in a Diglett's Sporting Goods dressing room. He did that for a while, processing and planning everything, before he suddenly realized he was wearing a girl's overcoat. It was then that he stood up, fished around in his pockets and, after unlocking the dressing room door, he yanked the tags off of his clothes, slammed a large sum of _poke_ on the counter and muttered "keep the change" before walking out of the store.

* * *

Despite the fact that she had been abandoned in a shopping mall, a situation not completely foreign to her, Diana was weirdly comfortable strolling around the mall at her leisure. To Diana, the Jubilife City Center Mall was just like any other shopping mall in the real world. In fact, the more time she spent trekking down the hallways, the more she realized how bizarrely similar and parallel her world was to the pokemon world. It was like walking in a mall full of the usual stores, but everything was renamed with pokemon puns. What used to be Banana Republic and Victoria's Secret were now Banette's Republic and Victreebel's Secret. Hot Topic was Hot Torchic, Aéropostale was Aéroblastale, Dick's Sporting Goods was Diglett's Sporting Goods and so on. They even had an exact clone of Auntie Anne's pretzels called Auntie Anorith's! Diana couldn't help but smile at the funny similarities, only stopping to admire the pokemon that casually walked next to their trainers, some of which she recognized and some she didn't. She was simply glowing. This was going to be such a great world to be in!

A few more stores passed by before the brown, red, and white Claydol's Closet sign stood in all its luminescent glory. After setting foot in the store, it was easy to get lost in the stacks of clothing. Outfits of all sizes, shapes, and colors were hung on the clothing racks and anything that wasn't hung up or folded into piles were crammed into every nook and cranny of the shop. Items that were unwanted by previous shoppers were discarded onto the ground, refolded haphazardly, or shoved back into the pile or clothing rack they had probably not originally come from. It reminded her a lot of Goodwill.

Regardless, Diana was kind of excited getting to pick out her own clothes without her mother's help. Most of the time, her mother did random shopping sprees and brought back a bunch of clothes for her to try on, ninety percent of which would get sent back. Diana didn't do it to be mean and she wasn't picky. She just had certain... conditions her clothes to adhere to. If the fabric was too uncomfortable to her skin or smelled funny, it was an automatic discard. Anything too small had to go too. Also, no wool or pantyhose or anything that felt scratchy or hugged her legs too much that it felt like she was wearing tights; it gave her the heebie-jeebies. Also, no long sleeve shirts.

Unfortunately, her pickiness didn't leave her with a lot of options. Aside from the fact that her preferences limited her, most of the clothing sizes were too small for her. That was because almost the entire store was filled with clothing for kids. Rows upon rows of clothing racks were filled with overalls and cartoon-y t-shirts and shorts that were probably donated from someone else's hand-me-downs. At least there wouldn't have to be a middle-man. She could at least choose to be positive about that.

After grabbing a shopping cart, Diana set her Swablu down into the basket and scoured the rows and racks for clothes. She sifted through all the different kinds of outfits on the hangers, but aside from a white polo t-shirt, blue vest, and a red pleaded miniskirt, nothing appeared to be in her size. Finally, after twenty minutes of sifting, she managed to find the discarded bin of teenager clothes that was shoved in the corner. Now she had the opportunity to pick out her own clothes without having to be judged for her fashion choices or hear her mom complain about having to take back stuff she didn't want or need. She picked up two t-shirts that she managed to find in her size.

"So Flonne, which one do you think should I get? The grey top that says 'I Like 'em Tall and Dark Type' or the horrid yellow one with the Sharpedo that says 'Snack Attack?'" she asked her pokemon, lifting up the appropriate tops. The bird pokemon gave her a confused head tilt, sniffing at the grey t-shirt. "Grey it is, then!" Diana smiled, placing it in her shopping cart. She actually had an amounting collection of tacky t-shirts with cheesy catchphrases she wore back home. Originally, it was just so she could piss off her mom with her embarrassingly high amount of tacky clothes, but later it had become a weird hobby of hers. Must have come from her strange affinity for dad jokes and terrible puns.

She noticed two tank tops dyed with her favorite color purple and tossed them in for the try-on pile, along with a pair of discontinued army cargo pants. Wanting to plan ahead, she snagged an old, black, jean jacket with a Gyarados bedazzled into the back with a pair of black sweatpants that had 'Juicy' written on the butt with an icon of a Cheri berry next to it, and some rubber snow boots for colder weather. After throwing in a couple more miscellaneous items and pacing around the store for what felt like forever, Diana decided she had enough and flagged down a retail worker to unlock one of the dressing rooms so she could try everything on.

"No pokemon in the store, please. We have to keep things clean for the customers," the attendant said briefly before swiping the door open with an electronic lock. Diana gave the middle aged woman a look before reaching into her pocket for Flonne's pokeball and recalled her. Guess this place was more understaffed than she thought if they were only noticing her Swablu now. After putting a hook stating the number of clothes she had to try on, she shut the door and began to shimmy off her t-shirt and jeans.

So far, nothing in her pile seemed wearable aside from the short Buneary pajama bottoms and the cream baby blue Swablu tank top. The winter gear she had mismatched together also fit, but since it was a little hot for her to be wearing any of this at the moment, she changed into the only thing she could wear: the school uniform. At least it appeared to have been washed before being donated (Diana had found the dry cleaning receipt pinned to the lapel). Stepping out of the dressing room, she just checked out her items when a girl with teal dyed bob stopped in front of her.

"Oh my gosh, I love that top." Diana quickly looked down at her top, suddenly forgetting what t-shirt she was wearing, before giving the girl a hesitant smile as the latter handed her her shopping bag.

"...Thanks?"

"It's so nice to see people thinking about the environment," the teal girl beamed, carrying a certain brightness in her tone, "donating their clothes rather than buying clothes from corporate clothing chains that utilize sweatshops and underpaid workers."

"Yeah, I mean it's cool, saving the planet and all," Diana agreed. Uh oh. She was one of _those_ kind of people. Had Diana's sudden switch to vegetarianism attracted this environmentalist? Could they smell it on her?! Speaking of which, she was freaking starving! If she scrounged enough cash together, would it be considered cheating on her new diet if she grabbed a pretzel from Auntie Anorith's?

"I'm Helene," said the girl as held out her hand, momentarily breaking Diana's sudden reverie. Out of politeness, Diana gave her brief eye contact and shook her hand.

"I'm Diane, but my friends call me Diana."

"Very cool name. Like the goddess of the moon. I'm named after a moon too," Helene smiled, seeming to go through a bit of her own reverie as her eyes turned glassy for a moment before she came to. "You know, Diane-

"Diana."

"-we have this cool eco-group meeting downtown next Friday. You should totally come. There's going be free food and games and prizes. We're even getting some evolution stones for the prizes."

"Evolution stones, huh?" she hummed thoughtfully. She wasn't sure what kind of evolution she wanted her Eevee to evolve into, but it wouldn't hurt to have a stone or two on-hand; she did like options.

"Oh yes! Evolution is one of the cleanest forms of energy there is!" Helene declared excitedly and held out a pamphlet. "I can count on you being there, right?"

"Hmmm sure, why not? Fun and free food? I'm there!" Diana shrugged.

"Excellent!" Helene cheered, happily clapping her hands together. "Also, we're trying to get the word out to everyone about our event, so write down some of your family and friends names and numbers so that we can contact them."

"Ooookay..." Diana shrugged as she wrote down her mother's land line, something that had been disconnected years ago and was probably unreachable where she was, regardless. "Anything else, Bubbles?"

"Awww cute nickname! I love it! You know, you seem kind of cool. Maybe we should go grab some coffee and talk some more?" Diana blanched. _Did I just pick her up!? That was barely a compliment!_ She was flattered, sure, but she didn't want to lead Helene on -she was straight- but Diana was so hungry, she was ready to go to second base with Ellen DeGeneres if it meant getting some scones or at least a hot pretzel.

"Only if you're paying, and it's pretzels instead of coffee."

"Sure I can. Money's no object with my galaxy card. They give me free funds." _Who's "they?"_

"Excuse me, young lady, what do you think you're doing?" Diana turned around to see a cross Officer Jenny standing behind her. The policewoman irritably tapped her foot.

"Umm, _shopping?_ " Diana said slowly, as if the cop was stupid and hard of hearing. Who the hell spiked her coffee and donuts this morning?

"Oh, I bet. You're coming with me, young lady!" The policewoman's hand then clamped around her upper arm and started to haul her out of the store.

"W-Wha-? What'd I do?!" Diana exclaimed, starting to dig in her heels after the initial shock had worn off.

"If you're going to ditch school, next time don't wear the school uniform in public." Diana gave her the most perplexed stare. What was the cop talking about? How did she know about her school? It took Diana a couple seconds to realize that Jenny wasn't talking about her interview at Berklee and was, in fact, referring to the school uniform she was wearing now.

"But I'm not a student here! I just borrowed these clothes from a retail store!" the brunette cried out, looking desperately at the store entrance. "Ask Helene! She'll vouch for me!" But when Diana turned to look for the girl, the teal haired girl was nowhere to be found.

"Suuuure you did," Jenny rolled her eyes sarcastically before pulling her away from the store and out of the mall. Diana paled as she was hauled and shoved into the sidecar of a blue police motorcycle. Did this count as child kidnapping if it was a cop? Before she could try and escape, she was buckled into the car and wheeled off to places unknown, away from the mall and way past the pokemon center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Swablu is named after Flonne from the Disgaea series.


End file.
